


Mere Moments In Time

by Terran Rivers (lovemesomecas94)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Falling In Love, Gay Romance, Good vs Evil, Having magical powers, High School, Learning One's Origins, M/M, Magic, Summer School, Teacher/Student (Technically), Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-25
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-07-17 14:33:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 32,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16097606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovemesomecas94/pseuds/Terran%20Rivers
Summary: Ricter Emil Johensen's worst problem had been the fact that his older brother, Kingsley, beat on him every day in one manner or another. Then one Elliot Hanis Kellen shows up as his summer school teacher. It doesn't take long for Ricter to realize that everything in his life is not as he once thought it to be; he himself holds secrets he never dreamed of having. The worst part is the fate of the future world rests in what happens on his eighteenth birthday and how he handles it. Can Elliot teach him enough in time to change the future, or is he too late?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Right off the bat, I would like to have general trigger warnings for mentions of non-consensual sex, sibling abuse, cutting, and suicidal thoughts. If the life of an innocent animal being in danger is also a trigger for you, that is also in the story. While this is hardly the most violent story in existence, it does hold a little more violence than my previous works. 
> 
> Individual chapters that contain the trigger content will also have warnings.
> 
> Also, the story does start off a little slow but I urge you to just keep reading. It will get interesting.

I looked at the familiar school entrance doors not with dread like the rest of my peers here today but with excitement, jubilation, and even relief. I was the only one here for summer school entirely of my own choice; the rest here due to being idiotic failures. Okay, so I didn’t really _know that_ for sure, but I could guess that by the type of kids I was seeing here today. I suppose you’re wondering why someone would ever want to willingly go to summer school, spending those long days in a classroom (after spending all year in classrooms) instead of hanging outside with friends and having something called fun.

One reason is this gets me ahead academically. By taking this _Intro To Greek_ _Mythology_ class, I would have a free space in my fall schedule to fill with whatever elective I desire, which I already know is gonna be psychology, because the career I want is that of a psychologist. Every day, in the halls of this school, I see so much hurt, so many unanswered questions about what those kids are feeling—I myself feeling those same questions—that it makes me want to help kids in the future to navigate these scary waters, to better help them achieve good, wholesome lives outside of high school. That’s not such a bad thing, right?

If you asked my friends, they’d tell you it _is_ a bad thing, that I’m definitely crazy, because this took away my time with them. Thing is, they don’t know the other, more prominent reason why I’m here: my brother, Kingsley (he preferred to be called Kai), is physically abusive. He is older than me by a year, so this is the last summer he will be spending at home. I knew this meant he’d beat on me more than usual, and after years of his abuse, I just wanted to escape him any which way I could. The beatings started after he’d reached puberty, around age thirteen, and I don’t even know why he felt the need to hit me, pinch me, throw stuff at me, use weapons, cut me, steal my stuff, break my stuff…you get the idea. It’s true I couldn’t avoid him forever. I would have to go home at some point…but for now, I had school, and I could stretch my stay here until three; I had a hiding place.

So, anyway, here I was, of my own choice, walking into the classroom of what I hoped would be a very interesting class. I found my usual spot in the classroom unoccupied (I always sat in the same spot in every classroom) and headed over to claim it. Nobody stopped me, so already this day was going great; now to wait.

It took the teacher ten minutes past the start time of the lecture to arrive. Some kids were sniggering about the fact that if he wasn’t here in another five minutes, they could ditch (not true, by the way). In he walked, however, before the fifteen minute mark, and I found myself amused as everyone else let out a collective groan. My amusement died out fast, though, as it occurred to me that the guy who had just walked in was not at all whom I’d expected, which began to trigger my anxiety. For starters, this guy is way younger than Mr. Jenste; I daresay he was barely out of his teens. Secondly, the way he moves was so…graceful, something Mr. Jenste lacked. Thirdly, h—

His eyes slid over to me right then, and all thought in my mind screeched to a dead stop. His eyes…have you ever seen brown eyes in the sunlight? They take on a sort of golden color? His are almost like that but even more golden and not in any sunlight. It…I could not look away. His lips turned up in a grin which only deepened my fascination _and_ sent a thrill through me as I realized his gaze softened when he smiled. All at once I wanted him, _desperately_. I could not think of anything else; just him. He was the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in my life.

He turned away and the spell broke. I found myself feeling monumentally embarrassed and nothing else. What the hell had _that_ been? As I was about to launch into an internal discussion about it, the guy turned back towards the class and spoke.

“Good morning!” I fell right back under his spell. His _voice_ …“I can see right off the bat that a lot of you do not want to be here. Well, that’s tough, because you _are_ here, and that could’ve been avoided if you’d only taken the time to actually give a shit about your grades. As it is, welcome to Intro to Greek Mythology. I am Mr. Kellen.”

I raised my hand then, only half aware that I had done it. It was already too late as I immediately yanked it back down; he had seen it.

“Yes?” He prompted me.

I swallowed as my mouth became dry; those eyes were looking at me again. For a split second, I forgot what it was I’d wanted to ask, and it caused me to internally panic. Mr. Kellen waited patiently, shushing the other kids when they tried to tease me. This act of kindness from him allowed me the time to relax a little, to finally recall my question.

“What happened to Mr. Jenste?”

“Ah, very good question.” Mr. Kellen leaned back against his desk up front, crossed one ankle over the other, folded his arms against his chest, and continued with the explanation (while I had to seriously fight a massive surge of hormones; _fuck me_ , he was so sexy):

“I’m Mr. Jenste’s nephew. His sister is my mother. He knew of my passion for teaching; it’s what I’m going to college for in the fall. I had been aiming to be his teacher’s assistant, and it turns out timing couldn’t have been better. An emergency within the family cropped up—someone very dear to him required his help, and would need it all summer—so he ended up pulling some strings to get me to take over his class. Said it’d be very good experience for me and handed me all his notes.” He looked directly at me as he finished, making me weak in the knees (funny, that, since I was sitting). “Does that help your anxiety about this unexpected change?”

I blinked, feeling quite shocked that he knew how I was feeling. How’d he know how I was feeling??

He softened his expression with a smile and moved his gaze to others in the class. “Now, if we could, I’d like to get started. Please open your books to…” His voice droned on, but all I could focus on was how he’d known…

*~*~*~*

Elliot barely had time to control his expression when the familiar wave of desire slammed into him. He already knew exactly from whom it was coming, and it took everything he had not to start grinning like an idiot; it was a comfort to know. At any rate, desire was not the only thing he’d felt from him, and Elliot felt a wave of guilt that was his own; Ricter hated his routine being disrupted even if that someone interrupting was someone he desired.

Elliot had slipped up minutes later, however, not used to having to hide this power so completely. Oh, this world knew all about magic; they saw it every day. Ricter, however, didn’t know it was a part of _his_ life as well, in more ways than one.

When suspicion began to cloud the other feelings, Elliot cursed himself. It wasn’t time for Ricter to know yet, and that meant he’d have to be a helluva lot more careful until the time arrived. If Ricter found out too soon, if he found out before he was capable of handling the information…things could get even worse than they already were. Should Ricter approach him after class and ask point-blank how he’d known, Elliot would lie, and hope the guy would forgive him later when all was revealed. For now, Elliot decided the best course of action was to just let it go and focus on the lesson at hand. Ricter wasn’t the only kid he’d have to take care of this summer, not if he wanted to succeed with his plans.

He hoped like hell he’d be able to pull it off.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ******TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!!********TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!!********TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!!*********
> 
> Non-consensual sexual acts

I really do not like it when things don’t go as planned. I’m not sure why I’m like this, but regardless to this fact, Mr. Kellen actually proved his worth. He had a unique teaching style that was less formal. I think maybe because he was closer to our age, he could relate to us more, and a lot of the kids found themselves agreeing with things he said. I also think it was the _way_ he phrased things. He was very easy to understand despite the topic being kind of difficult.

Anyways, class ended at eleven, and I, as usual, was not ready to go home. I headed towards the classroom exit, and as I stepped out of the classroom, my worst fear…okay, second worse fear…came to life.

“Hey, Johnneh!”

I froze on the spot, closing my eyes as dread overtook every ounce of my body. I’d know that voice anywhere. I’d heard it in all kinds of tones. Plus, there was only one guy who called me Johnneh, a spin-off of my last name: Johensen. I don’t know, either, how he got Johnneh from my last name, but that was irrelevant right now.

Fredrick Herkley clapped his hand on my shoulder; I jumped from the touch.

“Hey, buddy! I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you here!”

Warily, I looked at the smartest kid in the school.

“Fredri—”

“Now, now, Rickie,” my first name is Ricter; I hated the nickname Rickie, “after all we’ve been through this past year, I am hurt that you won’t call me Freddie.”

I swallowed against a mouth that went dry as memories of all he’d made me do this past year…of all he’d done to me, as well…came to the surface. You don’t want to know.

“Why are you looking so nervous?” He moved behind me (my breath caught in my throat) and began to massage my shoulders. I closed my eyes, trying very hard not to go into a full panic attack.

“You gotta relax, man.” He stopped his massage to press his body against mine. He put his lips to my ear. “I can help you with that.” His hand slid down my arm, then around to the front to my stomach and would’ve gone well past the waistband of my shorts if I hadn’t jumped away from him at that precise moment.

“I did what you wanted all year, Fredrick,” I told him, braving his slightly-wide-eyed green gaze. “Leave me alone.”

“Quite the contrary, baby, we’re nowhere near done.” My heart sank. I’d been afraid of this. “You want to be doing my homework all summer?”

I silently shook my head.

“Do you want me to release those photos, then?”

“No! God, please, no!”

He took my hand. “Then you’re going to give me what I want. We both know you don’t want to go home until much later, so you have plenty of time to do as I desire. Come on.” He led me, with no resistance on my part, towards the stairs that would lead us out to the abandoned band building.

In case you haven’t figured it out by now and you just really want to know…he had coerced me into doing sexual acts all year in lieu of having to do his homework. I had hoped this summer would have been a reprieve from all that was Fredrick Herkley, but I guess luck was just not on my side.

*~*~*~*

Elliot had scarcely been paying attention to the moods still swirling about him. He’d forgotten to shut it off for the time being. Besides, it didn’t bug him much anymore and, at any rate, it was a good thing he’d forgotten because all of a sudden a massive wave of dread slammed into him. In the few minutes that followed, that dread he felt only increased, combined with an even more intense feeling of complete shame.

Unable to just sit around knowing some kid out there was in a bad situation, Elliot quickly got to his feet and hurried towards the door of his classroom. He needed only open the door to spot the kid feeling all of this.

“Ricter,” Elliot murmured, his heart breaking for the guy. There was a second kid standing behind him, massaging his shoulders and whispering into his ear. Ricter clearly hated this. Elliot stood, frozen in place, watching as this kid continued to come onto Ricter, feeling every single emotion that was drowning Ricter in waves. Whoever was talking to him had made him do some very shameful things, Elliot felt, things that had also felt good?

All at once, Elliot understood, and felt sick to his stomach. He watched as the kid took Ricter’s hand, and as he felt the utter despair that screamed at him, Elliot knew he had to stop this from happening. This may not have been the main event that caused evil to reign over the future, but it certainly wouldn’t help things either. He waited until they were close to the exit before following.

*~*~*~*

I’m not going lie. I wanted to cry, and tears very stubbornly tried to well up in my eyes, especially when we reached the band building. Frederick let go of my hand and went to flick on one of the light switches. One single row of them turned on in the center of the ceiling but I only scarcely noticed. My focus was more on the kid who has a look in his eyes that I had grown to hate. He’d never been rough with me, had never made me bleed or brought me excruciating pain, but he’d also never let me say no, and I knew this time wouldn’t be any different.

He approached me (already hard, I could tell), his lips seeming to be permanently stuck in a smirk; it was a look he thought was sexy.

“On your knees,” he ordered.

It is useless to plead with him not to make me do this. Frederick is horny, and lonely, and I am the one guy he could easily manipulate; he knew of my struggles with my brother, knew I had no strength to fight him too.

So, I got on my knees, fighting the urge to cry at how desperately helpless I felt. Just as he unzipped his pants, the entrance door slammed open, and Mr. Kellen stood silhouetted in the doorway (the dim light of the room had just _barely_ reached his face).

“I wouldn’t do that, kiddo,” Mr. Kellen told Frederick.

Frederick glared down at me. “Did you tell him?!”

“No! I haven’t told anyone!”

“Then how the hell did he know we were out here?”

“It wasn’t him,” Mr. Kellen said as he made his way over. When he reached me, he looked at me with such kindness in his eyes. “Stand up, Ricter.”

“Don’t you dare!” Frederick ordered.

Mr. Kellen shot him a glare. “Listen up, you asshole, I’M a faculty member and therefore I have authority whereas you do not. Ricter,” he looked back at me, “stand up.”

I shakily got to my feet, requiring a little help from Mr. Kellen, who softened his tone as he told me it was okay, that I was okay, that he wouldn’t let Frederick touch me.

“Mr. Kellen,” Frederick said in a voice suddenly way too calm, “I can explain. He and I are dating. We often sneak off to do…well… _this_. I mean, what teenagers these days don’t?”

For the briefest of seconds, I felt despair and fear well up. What if Mr. Kellen believed him??

*~*~*~*

Elliot was surprised he hadn’t collapsed to his knees yet. Ricter was so full of so many negative emotions that were just nonstop barraging into him. However, even if Elliot didn’t have the power to feel everything Ricter was feeling, he would’ve known the truth the moment he watched all color drain from Ricter’s face when Frederick tried to pass this off as just two teenagers just being horny. That alone told him everything he needed.

*~*~*~*

“If this is consensual then why did all the color drain out of Ricter’s face?” The teacher asked. Relief spread through me like fire. Realizing that I was wavering, Mr. Kellen helped me sit back down. He then purposely stood in front of me, blocking Frederick’s path to me. I began to feel better. Mr. Kellen wasn’t like the rest of them after all.

Frederick rolled his eyes. “He gets low blood sugar a lot. He doesn’t eat like he should.”

Mr. Kellen wasn’t buying any of this.

“Right. Listen up, kid. You are _done_ forcing Ricter to have sex with you. I can’t believe you’ve actually gotten away with degrading such a perfect young man, making him do unbelievably dirty acts just for the sake of your own pleasure.”

“He liked it, too!” Frederick shot at him.

“The hell he did! Look at his fucking face right now! Look how fucking pale he is, how scared he is! Look how he trembles! You look at this kid and you fucking tell me this is the face of a kid who was _enjoying it_.”

Frederick scowled. “He’s just protecting his own ass, trying to get me in trouble.”

Mr. Kellen looked like he would’ve _so_ punched the living daylights out of Frederick…if only he wasn’t a teacher.

“Get the fuck out of here and stay the _fuck_ away from Ricter!” he snarled. When Frederick didn’t move, he exploded with: “NOW!”

I really hated outbursts like that even if they weren’t directed at me so I jumped about a foot because reflex and something about that reflex caused me to lose the last of my control. As Frederick ran towards the entrance, tears started down my cheeks. I lay on my side, curled my knees up to my chest and just let the emotions pour on out of me; already too late to stop them anyway.


	3. Chapter 3

It didn’t take long for my breakdown to turn into a full blown panic attack as thoughts of what had almost happened ran through my mind. As my breathing turned into loud, strained pants and the sobs just ripped out of me, Mr. Kellen remained calm, as if he had experienced someone having one of these attacks before. He knelt beside me and laid one hand on my arm.

“Ricter,” he kept his voice smooth, calm, quiet, “Ricter, I know you’re having a panic attack. Nod your head if you can hear me.”

I nodded.

“Now nod if you can feel the pressure from my hand on your arm.”

It was a gentle pressure, soothing almost, as if he was sending waves of calm into me via that touch. I nodded, staring at the floor through tear-blinded eyes.

“Good! Good. Very good. You’re doing amazing. I have to make sure, now: you can understand me enough?”

I nodded again. I could understand him pretty well actually. I felt as if I knew his voice by heart…which made absolutely no sense. Still, the sobs wrenched out of me, my breathing refused to regulate, the tears refused to stop. I felt if I didn’t correct my breathing right now, I was bound to pass out in a few minutes; it was taking on a hiccupping quality as time and time again I struggled to get air to my lungs.

“Good. Okay. Listen to my voice. Hear the calm. Do you understand that I am calm right now?”

I nodded.

“Do you understand that you are not in any danger right now?”

I nodded.

“Very good; you’re doing great, buddy.” He began to very lightly rub my arm. “Does this bother you?”

I shook my head. It was helping, actually.

“Beautiful.” He kept doing it. “Please list for me four things you can touch right now, touching them as you do so.”

My breathing grew worse as I worried about time constraint; that is, until he said:

“It’s okay; you’re doing well, Ricter. Take all the time you need. There is no rush.”

Okay. I could do this. I knew how to do this.

“F-four things…I c-c-can…touch…are…th-the floor,” I touched it.

“How does it feel?” He asked.

I blinked, taken by surprise. I hadn’t expected the question. “Uh. Cold.”

“Good, very good; that’s one down. You’re doing great, Ricter.”

Already my breathing was starting to regulate.

“And…my sn-sneaker.” I touched that.

“How does that feel?”

“R-r-rubbery.”

His hand kept stroking my arm lightly. I don’t know why it was relaxing me, but it was.

“That’s great! What’s a third thing you can touch?”

I looked to my left and saw some stairs. I identified them as I touched.

“And how do they feel?”

My breathing was coming easier. “Uh. Solid.”

Mr. Kellen nodded (I saw in my peripheral). “Fantastic. What’s one more thing you can touch?”

I hesitated at this point because the only other thing near me was him. Slowly, I reached out and touched his knee very lightly with just two fingers.

“Your knee,” I said in a shy, quiet voice, unable to look at him.

If he wanted to laugh, he never did, though the amusement showed in his tone.

“And how does my knee feel?”

“Warm.”

“Good. You’re doing amazing, Ricter. I want you now to tell me three things you can see.”

I looked around, realized the tears blinded me, and wiped them away. Ah, yes, that was better.

“I can see the door.”

“What color is it?”

“It’s black.”

“Very good!”

“I can see some music stands.”

“What material are they made out of?”

“Metal, I think. I don’t know. I’ve never used them.”

Mr. Kellen smiled. “Truthfully, neither have I.”

I found myself smiling in response, which surprised the hell out of me.

“And I can see the window shades.”

“Do you think anyone can see through them?”

I found myself amused by this question. “Not unless they have x-ray vision.”

Mr. Kellen laughed. “This is true!” His hand moved from my arm, resting with his other hand in his lap. “Can you tell me two things you smell right now?”

“I smell your cologne.”

“Does it bother you?”

I shook my head; it was a sweet scent, and not overbearing.

“And I can smell the mustiness of the room.”

“If you could play any instrument in this room, what would you want to play?”

I blinked at him, surprised yet again by the change in direction.

“Uhm. I’d wanna try the clarinet.”

Mr. Kellen’s golden brown eyes studied me with a great gentleness; there was no judgment anywhere in them, which made me feel safe.

“Could you tell me what fascinates you the most about this world?”

“Love,” I replied automatically.

If he was shocked by my answer, he didn’t show it. He only let out a soft chuckle and said:

“Ricter?”

“Hm?”

“You’ve calmed down.”

It crashed in on me then that he was right. My breathing was normal, my sobs and tears had stopped, and my thoughts were not racing around.

“Oh.” I stared at him, floored with amazement. “How’d you do that??”

“Someone I’m close with has panic attacks a lot, and when we first met he taught me how to navigate him through them. Now, everybody is different, but the point is to distract from their panic. The key is to remain calm though. If I start panicking because you’re panicking, it serves only to worsen your own panic because if _I’m_ panicking then your brain thinks your panic is well justified which then heightens your panic.”

I don’t think I’d ever heard someone say the word “panic” so much in under a minute and it made me want to giggle. I didn’t, though.

“Yeah, that makes sense.” I felt so worn out. “Thank you.”

“No problem. Mind if I sit here with you for a while?”

I shook my head. If anything, I actually wanted him to stay. Summer school got so lonely since I was using it to hide from my brother, and my friends never visited me here. I guess I couldn’t really blame them, but still…

“Can I ask you a question?” Mr. Kellen spoke after a bit. It’d been several minutes of quiet settling around us so I started a little. He started to reach for me, looking apologetic, and then just…retracted his hand…as if he’d changed his mind about touching me. I felt disappointed.

“I’m sorry,” he said to me then, “I didn’t mean to scare you. Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” I assured him. “I startle easy. But, yeah, you can ask.”

“I was wondering what you’re doing here, at summer school.”

I looked at him with complete surprise; I hadn’t expected that question (I’d expected him to ask about Frederick).

“What?” I asked.

“You don’t strike me as the type of kid who would neglect his grades. I mean, maybe I’m wrong, what do I know, I just…” he shrugged. “You don’t belong here with those losers.”

I found myself smiling again, reacting despite not wanting to because I felt flattered; I had no fucking idea how to deal with that.

“Well, you’re right…I don’t neglect my grades. I’m almost a straight-A student…uh. I’m here because…I wanted…well…some extra credits.”

His eyes seemed to burn into mine, seeing right into my soul. I swear to God he could feel everything I was feeling and I had no idea why I felt that way.

“And Greek mythology?”

It was my turn to shrug. “It sounded interesting.”

Mr. Kellen laughed softly at that. “Well, I’m gonna be honest. I hated learning about it in high school. English was so not my thing.”

“What was your thing?” I asked him. I wanted to know everything about him. I should’ve been seeing a teacher in front of me, someone I was not meant to know on a personal basis, someone purely professional, but my heart saw someone I could potentially bond with…a true friend, maybe. It was real determined about it, too.

Mr. Kellen, taken by surprise, sort of stalled for a second before answering:

“Oh, uh, that’d have to be science. Any of the sciences; I found them all incredibly fascinating, easy to understand, easy to remember. Everything makes _sense_ with science, you know?”

I nodded, completely understanding him.  Silence fell between us again. I stared at my hands in my lap, wishing I could think of stuff to talk about and feeling guilty that I couldn’t. Once more, he fixed that.

“Okay, so, I know this is probably way too soon,” _oh, here it comes,_ “and you don’t have to, if you don’t want to,”…why had that felt like an improvisation?...“but I was wondering if you could explain to me why Frederick was using you like his own personal sex toy? I mean what was he using to blackmail you into doing it?”

Oh, god. Could I talk about this? Part of me identified the fact that I _should_ talk about it. Given my reaction earlier when I’d been saved from doing it for the first time in what felt like forever, I knew talking about it would help me heal. I had a feeling I could trust Mr. Kellen more than I could trust anyone else in this whole freaking town, but that didn’t mean I was…ready…

I did want to tell him, though…I wanted someone to care. I didn’t want to be so alone anymore and…I think that’s why I found myself telling him everything.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ******TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!!********TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!!********TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!!*********  
> Non-consensual sex (main character talks about it)  
> Sibling abuse  
> Cutting (done to main character by someone else)  
> Bleeding  
> Suicidal thoughts.

As I thought of how to start, I couldn’t look anywhere near Mr. Kellen. I was deeply ashamed about the story I was about to tell. Part of me was screaming at me to not say a thing, the part wanting more than anything to bury deep in denial and try to move on: my pride. Logic knew better, and though I knew this was right, that didn’t make it _easy_.

“Sorry,” I said after it’d been a few minutes.

Mr. Kellen, who had been staring absent-mindedly into space, blinked when I spoke, and focused upon me again, a small smile pulling at his lips.

“We have all the time in the world. It matters more that you’re comfortable.”

I made a face. “This isn’t…comfortable…to talk about.”

“Then we don’t have to.”

I took a deep breath. “I do, though, ultimately. If ever I’m going to…uhm…move on from this. I gotta talk about it.”

Mr. Kellen looked as if he understood and at the same time was proud. Why would he be proud, though?

Anyways, it was time; I had _just_ enough nerve to start.

“So, beginning of the school year Frederick approached me during a Friday dance I had forced myself to go to because my buddies wanted to go. I had been sitting alone on the bleachers in the gym as I usually did at those things. I’m known as the quiet one at school. Kids used to tease me for it, teachers playfully so. I was also one of the loneliest kids in the school, never having ever dated anyone.”

Mr. Kellen looked confused. “Sorry, but how did he know you were into guys, then?”

I forced my lips into a half-smile, staring at my hands. “A kid, not popular or anything, just a guy, thought it would be hilarious to prank me, as kids do, and when I responded to his advances, kissing him back, another friend was filming the whole thing. That friend called out my name during the kiss, such a random outburst I looked on reflex alone, right at the camera.”

“Oh. God, kids are the worst.”

A laugh burst out of me then, subsiding to a giggle before silencing. Mr. Kellen was smiling again.

“What was that?”

Truthfully, I don’t know. I shrugged and braved his gaze. It was gentle, amused, and utterly attentive. I couldn’t look away and my mind began to go blank. As I began to lean towards him, he uttered one word in a soft tone that had my entire body freezing.

“Rick.”

That was the nickname I preferred; only my friends knew that, though. My breathing caught in my chest while simultaneously my heart was racing a mile a minute. I felt such an intense pull towards this guy. We were already so _close_ …all I had to do was just…lean…closer…

 _This is dangerous,_ a voice chimed in my head, _back away, now. Get out of there._

I didn’t run out of there, I didn’t even stand up. I _did_ move away from him, however, putting a good foot of space between us. A glance at him showed that he was looking as confused as I felt.

“What was I saying?” I asked softly. “Before, I mean…”

He licked his lips (that didn’t help me at all), blinking a couple times as he concentrated. “You were explaining that Frederick knew you were gay, having approached you at the dance.”

“Oh, right. So, that’s how he knew I was an easy target. It didn’t take much to get me trapped. All he had to do was express an interest in me, seeming genuine. The sexual acts followed shortly after.” I was staring at the blinds on one of the windows, remembering all too clearly. “At first, it was kind of exciting. He seemed to like what I did, and he returned the favor, seeming to enjoy himself despite who I was. It felt great. But then he’d started wanting it more, he started getting really intense about it, and when I finally, after a couple of months, wanted out, he claimed he’d been photographing us the entire time. Said he’d release it on all the social media sites if I didn’t continue.

“And I believed him. It wasn’t until a couple months ago that I realized he was lying, using me for sex. When I tried to leave again, he threated he’d run around claiming _I_ had been taking advantage of _him_. And with my brother acting as he does I just did not have the strength to fight.”

Tears escaped down my cheeks, and then I was being hugged. Normally I hated being touched, but Mr. Kellen’s arms felt so solid, so protective around me that I ended up leaning into his embrace and closing my eyes as my head rested over his shoulder.

“I’m so sorry he put you through that,” he whispered. “You’re so strong, so beautiful, and so precious; you don’t deserve any of this shit.”

Alarm bells started to go off in my head; all at once, I realized I was resting in the arms of a guy who was my _teacher_ , still feeling an intense desire to kiss the man. That could definitely _never_ happen. I pulled away, stood up, and ran for the door without another word.

*~*~*~*

Elliot watched as Ricter ran from him and felt rather overjoyed because Ricter was feeling the same strength of desire Elliot felt for him. What was troublesome was the fact that Ricter saw him only as his teacher, and that meant he wouldn’t let go easily. Not to mention the hell the guy had been living meant trust was nonexistent in his life. Elliot knew he’d have to tread carefully but _fast_. They needed to fall in love, or close to it, by the time the boy turned eighteen, because if some sort of bond/trust wasn’t formed by then, more than just the fate of the world would be lost, and that was something Elliot did _not_ want to experience.

*~*~*~*

Though it wasn’t three yet (or even close to it) I risked going home. I couldn’t stay at the school and risk Mr. Kellen trying and succeeding to find me. I feared if he did, I’d end up making a damn fool out of myself and…I don’t know…kissing him…or worse.

At home, my brother lay sprawled out on the couch, fast asleep. I looked up at the ceiling (sky) with utmost gratitude. When my brother was asleep, it was like he was dead. Nothing disturbed him. He once slept through construction with a loud party going on next door.

I took a step.

“Well, well, well, he finally returns,” Kai said.

My heart sank. I remained frozen in place, waiting for the inevitable beating; after a few minutes, it didn’t come. I slowly peeked over at him and discovered him still deep asleep. With a leap of my heart I realized he’d been talking in his sleep which meant he was deep enough under that I could make all kinds of ruckus and he wouldn’t wake. Quickly but quietly (just because I could be loud doesn’t mean I should be), I stole away to my room, making it there successfully. It was there I completed the reading for homework I had to do, and answered the questions from the packet. Once my homework was completed, I went to my window with a book for leisurely reading, curled up in the window seat, and read.

The attack came while I was washing dishes, roughly after seven-thirty PM. I stood there, my hands automatically scrubbing each dish, then rinsing, then placing on the drying rack while my mind travelled back to being in that band room with Mr. Kellen. I couldn’t let go of the nagging feeling that there was something more there than it seemed. Despite his young age, knowing he was a teacher should’ve stopped me from developing this crush I had, but spending time with him…all I’d seen was a guy my age who wanted to help me out, a guy who cared about what happened to me. It was impossible not to feel something for him, despite wanting it all to stop.

A splash of water spraying on my face snapped me out of my reverie and I looked to my right first. Kai stood there with that damned grin on his face.

“Sorry,” he lied, “didn’t mean to splash you there. You forgot a dish.”

I studied his face, trying to discern if he was going to beat me up tonight or not, and as always, I couldn’t tell. I said nothing in reply as I looked back at the sink before me. The new dish was actually a knife, and all at once I realized his plan.

I started to back away too late.

“It would be a shame, wouldn’t it, if you got hurt while doing the dishes.” I watched with horror, realizing my second mistake, as he reached into the sink and pulled the knife out. Had I not moved, I could’ve grabbed the knife before he had and I don’t know, hid it? I shouldn’t have backed away.

“Kai, please, don’t do this. Aren’t you tired of doing this?”

He looked at me with wide, gray eyes, trying and failing to convey utter innocence.

“Do what, brother? I’m not doing anything.”

“Then put the knife back into the sink.”

His expression changed to one of mischief, his eyes going cold.

“You think you’re worth sparing?”  He slashed the knife at me and I flinched despite the fact that a) he was not close enough, and b) I was not yet completely trapped so I could l keep the distance between us. I just had to make it to the front door.

“Kai, I’m not worth killing, either.”

He stopped, shocked. “Killing? Dear brother, I don’t want to _kill_ you.” He slashed the knife at me again. “I just want to have a little fun.”

Adrenaline was quickly making its way through my system; I knew if I had any chance at all of escaping being wounded by that knife, I needed to stay calm. I reached the kitchen entranceway and made the decision to just fucking run for it. I whirled and bolted through the doorway, turned left, and made it just past the stairs when my feet betrayed me and I tripped on the runner rug that was in this hallway.

“Shit!” I hissed as I fell hard to my knees. I hardly felt the pain that burned in my knees; the adrenaline from the fear was stronger.

Chuckling sounded behind me and I whirled, panic filling every vein as I ran into the door in my frantic effort to scooch backwards away from him. _Now_ I was trapped.

Kai squatted before me, looking as if this was the thrill of his life. Pleading was useless, I knew, but I tried it anyway.

“Kai, _please_. Beat me up, take a bat to my body, rape me, I don’t care; just anything but _that_!”

His eyes glittered with pure evil as he grabbed my right arm, tightening his grasp as I tried to jerk free. “Precisely, dear brother, why I’m using this; _this_ scares you. _This_ ,” he cut my arm well above the wrist in a single stroke and I cried out as pain seared from the cut, “will remind you that _I’m_ in charge here.”

I was trembling now, so scared tears were about to start. The blood oozing from my arm didn’t help things at all.

“I n-never fo-for…forgot! Please! NO!”

He slashed again above the first cut. Tears won out as he dropped that arm and picked up my left.

“Gotta have ‘em match, after all,” he said in a jovial tone, slicing the first cut on that arm.

After the second cut, he grabbed me again by the right arm (causing me to screech as the pain overcame my senses) and dragged me to the bathroom nearby. In there, he shoved me to the floor, ordered me to clean myself up, and left me there. I stared down, crying and petrified, at my bloodied arms wondering, as usual, why me. What had I done to him? Why did I deserve this? It was then I briefly considered just letting them bleed. They weren’t that deep, but maybe they were deep enough that I could let myself die. It was the first time I had ever considered such a thing, and that scared me even worse.

 _Don’t do that,_ a voice that wasn’t mine chimed in my mind, _keep holding on, and fight. It’s gonna get better, I promise. Please, please stay alive. Save yourself tonight, please._

Something about that voice was so familiar that it soothed, and I realized if I survived this, hardly anything would affect me. So, I looked around for something to stanch the bleeding and saw the towel hanging by the sink. Shakily I got to my feet, took off my shirt, grabbed and wetted the cloth, held it over the wounds (hissing through clenched teeth at the pain) and raised my arms above my head. I recalled, in health class, being told that doing this will slow the bleeding. The one blessing out of this horrid experience was that Kai had kept the cuts close together, so the towel easily covered them both.

When I got the bleeding slowed on the one arm, I dried it off and set out to bandaging it. The shakes I suffered were so bad it took me a solid five minutes to get a decent enough cover over my wounds; then it was time for the other arm.

When that one was sufficiently bandaged, I sank to the floor again and started sobbing.

How was this my life? _Why_ was this my life?

I cried until I could no more, picked myself up, and went to bed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *********TRIGGER WARNING!!!*********TRIGGER WARNING!!!*********TRIGGER WARNING!!!*********
> 
> Aftermath of cutting/being cut  
> Bleeding

Sleep is such a wonderful thing. It allows us to escape our hells for about eight hours. At least, for me it did, and for the briefest of seconds upon waking up, I had forgotten all about last night. That is until I went to move the sheets off me and my arm touched my stomach. The pressure sent a wave of pain so strong throughout my arm that I lost the ability to breathe for a moment. It all came back, and briefly, I was lost in another crying session, at the end of which I looked down at my bandaged arms with dread. They had bled through their bandages, which meant I would not be able to go the day without bandaging them again, which then meant I would have to wear long sleeves…in the summertime. Yeah, _that’d_ totally go unnoticed. I knew the other kids wouldn’t give two shits about me, but they weren’t the ones I had a crush on anyway. Only one man held my attention, and I did not want that one man knowing I’d been hurt.

All at once, I sensed someone at my doorway staring in, so I looked up in that direction, none too shocked to see Kai standing there, looking mightily proud of himself.

“You’re going to have a hard time hiding those,” he said conversationally, as if we were talking about something minor like the weather.

“I’ll manage,” I muttered at him.

“You’re damn right you will. If anyone finds out I cut you, I _will_ torture you to death.” He walked off as a shudder ran down my spine. He’d spoken so calmly; something was terribly wrong with that kid, and our parents didn’t even see it…or didn’t want to, I guess.

At the school, I got lots of weird looks from the kids around me. I was the only one, as I knew I would be, wearing long sleeves. The shirt was a sky blue color. I had wanted to wear black to better hide any bulges in the sleeves but black _really_ would’ve stood out and I had enough shit to deal with.

In the classroom, I sat in my usual spot, and kept my eyes cast down at the desk surface. Kids chattered around me for what seemed like a long time before they all went silent as the classroom door opened and Mr. Kellen’s voice greeted us. The class grumbled back.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m happy to see you too,” Mr. Kellen said sarcastically. “Let’s jump right to it. Those of you that did your homework please drop them into this box,” he tapped a wire basket that sat close to the edge of his desk on our left side (facing his desk). “Tomorrow, when you come in, you may find them over here,” he tapped a similar basket on the other end of his desk on our right side, “if you wish to know your grade.”

I waited to get up until about five or six students had gotten up before me and formed a line. Looking behind me as I made my way to the front of the classroom, I was relieved to see there were about seven or eight kids waiting. The point here being I was hoping Mr. Kellen wouldn’t notice my long sleeves amongst the crowd.

When it came to be my turn, however, our eyes met, then his flicked down to my arm that had reached to put my homework into the basket, which in turn caused a confused look to cross his face. Before he could ask me, however, I whirled and hurried back to my desk, cursing internally all the while. Of course my plan hadn’t worked. Why would any plan of mine _actually_ work?

So, as you can imagine, it shocked me none when he asked me to stay after class. Patiently I waited at my desk as the room emptied out, ever-so-slowly it seemed, and when everyone else had _finally_ left, Mr. Kellen came over to me, pulled up a chair, and sat down.

“Show me your arms,” he said quietly.

I fiddled with my pen, avoiding his gaze. “There’s nothing to show.”

“Then why are you wearing long sleeves on an eighty-five-degree-one-hundred-percent-humidity summer day?”

“Because I felt like it.”

“Ricter, that’s bullshit and we both know it. Show me your arms.”

I looked at him, suddenly realizing why the voice last night had seemed so familiar.

It’d been his.

“You.”

His gaze held mine, and it wasn’t lost on me how there was absolutely no confusion in them, even as he asked: “Me what?”

“You’re the one who told me to keep fighting last night.”

I expected him to think I was crazy. What I hadn’t expected was him to let out a sigh and tell me I was right.

“What?!” I burst out. “How?!”

His gaze moved to the window beside my desk. “That’s a long story.”

“Then shorten it.”

His gaze flicked to me. “I have powers and we have a connection you don’t realize we have.”

“So, what, you can hear my thoughts?”

“I can feel what you’re feeling, I suspect you knew this anyway, and last night I felt it all.”

My eyes felt like they were going to fall out of my head, they’d gone so wide.

“One moment I was having dinner, everything’s calm, and the next I’m nearly knocked to the floor scared to death with no relief in sight. When that deep, panicked terror turned into a deep despair and I felt the desire to die, I reached out in my mind and pinpointed that you, unsurprisingly, were the source of all of this upheaval. You would’ve died, too, had you let them bleed.” To my surprise, tears welled up in his eyes as his gaze went to my arms. “And I couldn’t let you die.”

I swallowed hard, my brain scrambling like hell to keep up with this insane conversation. The best I could think of to reply with was:

“I’m sorry I ruined your dinner.”

He looked away from my arms at me, surprising me when anger flashed across his face.

“This is not a joke, Rick!”

I flinched from him, immediately hating how I didn’t know any other reaction to someone yelling at me. At the same time, I felt the lump in my throat (from the fright) followed by the frustration that this was always my reaction. I hated it.

He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap.”

“Right,” I mumbled, inching my seat away from him, just in case.

“Rick, I mean it. I’m so sorry.”

After a few minutes of silence between us, he asked again, gentler this time.

“Please, can I see them?”

This time I didn’t bother fighting him. I stayed absolutely still as he cautiously drew up the sleeve on one arm, then the other.

“God,” he whispered when he saw the bandages, tears rolling down his cheeks.

“God isn’t in this equation,” I said darkly. What kind of God would let a kid get sliced by his sadistic brother? None I wanted in my life anyway, thank you very much.

Mr. Kellen sighed, wiped the tears from his face, and stood up. I watched in silence as he went to the front of the classroom, grabbed the first aid kit by the entrance, and come back to me with it.

“We’re going to bandage you up properly, with antibacterial.”

I immediately drew my arms away. “They’re fine.”

Truthfully, I just didn’t want to feel the pain that would occur when he took these bandages off, put the salve on, and wrapped them with new bandaging.

“Ricter Emil Johensen, you will let me take care of your god damned arms or so fucking help me I will drag you to the nearest fucking hospital.”

I studied his gaze and knew he wasn’t bluffing.

“Just…”

He laid a gentle hand on my upper arm. “I’ll be careful.”

The pain was bad enough just taking the bandages off (which started up the bleeding again), and then he got out the peroxide, and I just knew I ain’t felt nothing yet. Before pouring it, he took off his shirt (revealing a white tee-shirt underneath), folded it into a gag of sorts, and told me to bite down. Then he offered me his free hand to grasp, which I soon discovered I needed, badly.

“MMM!” my scream was muffled as he poured.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It had to be done! I’m so sorry!!”

I closed my eyes against the tears that wanted out, and didn’t open them again until he said:

“There, that’s one down.”

I took the cloth out of my mouth and looked at him pleadingly. “Please. Just leave the other one. Please?”

The pain raged in his eyes even though he smiled, placing a hand against my cheek. “Bear with me, dear one, and I will treat you to whatever you want.”

I felt a wave of affection for him that I otherwise shouldn’t have felt. It was like we’d been lovers in a past life or something. His lips twitched as he set out to do the other arm, and I knew it had absolutely nothing to do with the arm.

“You owe me an explanation,” I muttered at him.

“That’s fair. Okay.” He looked at me. “Ready?”

“No.”

Sympathy appeared. “I know, but faster we do this, the faster it’s over with.”

I groaned, but put the makeshift gag back in my mouth and bit down, repeating the same actions as I had done with the other arm; the pain was some of the worst I’d ever felt. This time, tears ran down my cheeks, but at least it was over.

Mr. Kellen stroked my hair once as he straightened after finishing with the bandaging. “You did wonderful.”

I watched as he put the first aid kit back in its original place, and I began to notice every little thing now about the way he moved. I knew it was wrong, I knew this was a doomed path, but I couldn’t help myself. Something about the guy made my heart want to break all the rules and just fucking go for it.

When Mr. Kellen’s gaze met mine, I saw in them not polite detachment of a man who could feel what I felt and didn’t feel the same but of a guy who understood exactly what I was feeling as if he was sharing it instead of just being a receiver. I wanted to ask, but I was far too chickenshit to do so. I kept telling myself I had to remember that he was my teacher, but I already knew I would fail. Sooner or later something was going to give.

“Do you feel like taking a stroll with me today?”

No longer comfortable to be the only one sitting, I stood up.

“When it’s eighty five and a hundred percent humidity? In long sleeves?”

Mr. Kellen smiled humorously. “I brought with me a spare tee-shirt that you can wear. Plus where we’re going is rather magical. Despite how hot and humid it is elsewhere, it’s always a cool-temp-low-humidity place. What do you say?” He offered me his hand. I stared at it for a minute, then up at his face, wondering endlessly what he was up to, why he was doing this, why me, what’d he get out of it, how could he care like this?

“Rick, just trust me,” he advised gently.

The crazy part is I decided to do just that and took his hand.


	6. Chapter 6

He took me to an empty meadow. I mean, it was beautiful and everything, with everything in full bloom (the trees, the wildflowers), and the critters chittering away in the woods. It even smelled nice. It wasn’t any cooler than anywhere else, though. I was sweating even with the light, cotton, white tee-shirt he’d given me.

“Mr. Kellen—”

“Okay, since we’re off school grounds, please, _please_ call me Elliot, or Ell if you want.”

I studied him. “Why not Eli?”

He shrugged. “I just…never liked it.”

I decided not to pursue that. “Fine. Elliot.”

He smiled down at his feet in a shy manner that surprised the hell out of me. Something about me saying his name made him feel something. My heart could guess what, and it was fucking thrilled. Logic blasted the alarms, though, distracting me.

“Uhm. So. Anyways you said it would be cooler here and uh, in case you can’t feel the temperature out here, it ain’t.”

He looked up, studied me curiously, and then said:

“Try taking, oh,” he looked out at the meadow before us as if he was seeing not the meadow but something else, “eleven steps forward and no more; unless you want to go for an impromptu swim, that is.”

I looked out before us, then looked at him, at the meadow before us, back at him, and finally had to ask:

“What in the hell are you talking about?”

“Just take eleven steps, Rick.”

I seriously wondered if he’d lost his fucking mind. There was nothing but meadow here.

“Is this a joke?” I asked him. “Some elaborate prank? Did they put you up to this?”

Elliot looked confused. “They? Who’s they?”

“The jocks, the popular kids, I don’t know!” Then I realized another option. “Are you having a stroke?”

He realized what I was doing, and let out a groan as he rolled his eyes. “For fuck’s sake, Rick, just take the fucking steps and you’ll fucking see what I’m talking about!”

I decided if he really was insane and believed there to be some sort of water that was just outside eleven steps’ reach, it’d be best to humor him. Don’t insane people get really aggressive if you don’t play along with their delusions?

I ended up not even needing to take eleven steps because on the third, everything changed. No longer was it summer, but autumn, and more importantly…there was a waterfall about ten feet away, roaring down a cliff into a pool that extended to just a couple of feet away from me. Woods surrounded it all. I looked behind me and discovered not the meadow I had just been in and half expected to see, but, well, the woods. I can’t say I was terribly surprised by that, really.

“What the fuck?” I whispered.

Elliot appeared beside me, looking anxious. “Do you see it?”

“How the fuck could I miss it? And _why_ is it Autumn?” I also noticed it was cooler, with no humidity despite the large body of water we stood beside. “What the hell is this? What’s going on? Am _I_ having a stroke? Oh my god, I’m hallucinating, aren’t I? That must b—”

Elliot’s lips on mine shut me up quite effectively.

My heart just about died of ecstasy.

So _,_ it was obvious I was hallucinating. I just…I had to be.

Elliot eased back after only a few seconds, grinning because I’d been very reluctant to let him go. That kiss…man, oh, man, real or not that kiss had been the best thing I’d ever felt. I had expected it to feel wrong, but it only felt like this was meant to be, there were no doubts about it.

His brown eyes gazed, with deep affection, into mine.

“You’re not having a stroke, and you’re not hallucinating. This is all real. I have a lot to tell you.”

“I…uh…” My brain was going to have a stroke just trying to understand what was happening. “So confused.”

“I know. It’ll all make sense soon, I hope.”

“A-and the…the kiss?” I had this sinking feeling that it was a one-time thing.

Elliot studied me for a moment before he stepped forward, took my face in his hands, and pressed to my lips one of the sweetest, softest kisses I’d ever felt. Everything in my mind: the contradicting, the fighting, the alarms, the anxiety, the bad memories that screamed at me, it all went _silent_ , dead silent.

This time the kiss went on for a while, neither one of us wanting the other to stop. His hands made their way first to my arms, then down to my waist. I adjusted automatically when he proceeded to wrap his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him. My hands felt useless, I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing with them and so, I decided it was probably best to just…not move them. I rested my arms on his shoulders, let one hand just hang out there, and slid the other into his hair.

Our heads tilted this way, then that, then this way again, our lips moved with perfect synchronization as if he’d long since gotten used to kissing me. That was the real kicker, really, how _comfortable_ all of this was. There was nothing awkward, there was no learning curve. We fit together like perfect puzzle pieces.

I was the one to pull away this time with great struggle because _he_ was the one unwilling to let me go. I understood now his grin from earlier when I’d done the same to him; him not wanting me to pull away was very reassuring, a compliment even.

I rested my forehead against his.

“Okay,” I said softly. A gentle breeze stirred some leaves on the ground at our feet, carrying with it the beautiful scent that was autumn in the woods. I, on pure instinct, breathed in deep, closed my eyes to cherish the smells, and let my breath out slowly.

“You do that in the future, too.”

My eyes flew open. The future?!

Elliot’s smile faded just a little. “Yeah, I think it’s time I tell you that story.”

I swallowed, all of a sudden feeling very nervous about what was to come.

“I feel like we should sit for this.”

“Right you are, dear. Follow me.” He took my hand (and I let him because, heh, why not), and led me away from the waterfall into the woods. I grew anxious.

“It’s okay,” he assured me. “I stashed something near here that we’re going to bring back to the waterfall.”

“That’s what the killer always says to the unsuspecting victim in horror movies before exposing that the mystery item is a weapon and killing the victim.”

Elliot stopped to stare me down. “Did those villains make out with the victim twice before killing them?”

…Okay…so he had a point.

He smiled at me. “Let me show you, if I may?”

Show me?

At this point, I decided again: _why the hell not?_

He kissed me, only this time I saw images in my head like a mini, first person POV movie, of me…or Elliot, I guess…carrying some folding chairs by their bag straps over his left shoulder. When he reached a tree that I had seen just two seconds ago in real time, he slung the chairs off his shoulder and leaned them against this tree.

Elliot broke the connection, waiting as it took me a second to reorient myself back into this time and place. The tree I’d seen in the vision was less than three feet away. It had the oddest shape to it, sort of mangled in on itself. I found myself actually relating to it.

“Okay. So. What the hell was _that_ and how did you even?”

Elliot patted my cheek. “We have a profound bond that not even time can break, and that bond allows me to show you anything I’ve done in the past. It comes in handy to see if someone’s been cheating.”

I blinked. “Did you use it often in the future?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Good, I’m not a total asshole in the future.”

He laughed at this; assured me I was definitely not an asshole, and proceeded on his way to the tree with me staying close by. As expected, there were the two chairs. He took the red one, I took the black one, and hand-in-hand we headed back towards the waterfall. On the way there, some sunlight peaked through the trees and I stopped in awe of the beauty of this place, whatever it was, _wherever_ it was. Elliot stood beside me, looking madly in love as I took in the sights of my most favorite season.

Eventually my attention went back to him, and I found myself feeling embarrassed.

“I’m sorry,” I told him.

“Don’t be. Nothing brings me greater joy then seeing you be happy.”

I blinked as it occurred to me that I was, indeed, for the first time in my life, feeling very peaceful. Whatever this place was, it had stripped away all the negativity and left something so pure in its place. It felt so amazing.

“Come on.” Elliot began our way once more back towards the waterfall.

Upon getting there and finding a spot far enough away that we could hear each other over the roar without having to yell, we settled in, and he began his story.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *********TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!*********TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!*********TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!*********
> 
> Talk of a baby animal's life being in danger.
> 
> I put this as a trigger warning, even if most don't think it's that big a deal, for anyone who reads this that's like me and gets all emotional thinking about animals' lives being in any kind of danger for any reason.

At first, nothing happened. We just sat there in the chairs, neither of us saying a word, me watching him while he watched the waterfall. Though I didn’t actually count the minutes that went by, it felt like it’d been nearly ten before he finally admitted a truth:

“I have no idea where to even begin.”

Well, that was answered easily enough.

“Perhaps you should start with, uh, how all of _this,”_ I gestured grandly to our surroundings, “is possible.”

He smiled at me. “That’s simple enough. Magic makes this possible.”

“Magic,” I repeated dubiously; simple, my ass.

His smile faltered as he realized I didn’t believe in such foolishness.

“You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“That magic exists? That it’s real.” He looked perplexed. “How do you not know?? It’s literally everywhere around you in this town. You’ve never noticed??”

I shrugged. “I’m not very observant, I never have been.”

Elliot laughed. “Oh my god, some things really don’t change.”

My brow furrowed as my mind turned that phrase over and over; it was simple enough usually, but in this context it insinuated something far more complex.

“What do you mean by that?”

Elliot sighed. “Okay, Ricter, so, basically I’m from the future to save you from turning evil.”

I stared at him for about half a second before I started laughing. He could’ve done _so much better_ than that! Did he think I was twelve or something? I’ll admit he almost had me with the magic thing but this was just ridiculous. I mean…

Even with his statement dismissed, I still couldn’t explain why I went from being in a meadow to being in this place, or how he’d shown me that vision—for lack of a better term—of him storing the chairs in the very place we’d retrieved them.

My laughter subsided as I concluded that there really was no way to explain that; so, maybe it wasn’t all horseshit after all. I looked back at him and saw his serious expression, confirming this theory.

“Wait, you’re not kidding.”

He shook his head.

I felt the beginnings of a headache.

“So I turn evil?”

He nodded.

“Okay…” The urge to laugh returned but I didn’t oblige it this time. “Elliot, dude, I’m sorry, but this is all so…”

“Ridiculous, I know. I told future you that younger you would be nearly impossible to convince and I hate to see that I was right.”

_Future me?! Oi._

“Okay. I guess, logically, I gotta ask…exactly how do I turn evil?”

Elliot leaned forward, a look of reluctance appearing on his face. “What you’re about to hear is going to be even more difficult to believe than the fact that magic exists and I’m from the future.”

Well, Jesus, this guy knew how to build suspense; now I was anxious.

“Elliot, it does neither of us any good freaking me out like this so if you could just fucking tell me already, that’d be wonderful.”

He sighed. “It happens on your eighteenth birthday.” My heart leapt into my throat. That was fuckin’ four days from now! What the hell?! Elliot continued despite the alarm I was sure he could see on my face, “Your family, your brother specifically, does something particularly horrible to you, so horrible that you finally snap and…well. You take his life.”

I flinched and closed my eyes.

Elliot was wrong, he had to be! Me?? A killer?? I mean…sure, my brother could make me snap, that much was true but…I couldn’t fathom what could be so horrible that I’d end up taking his life, and I really didn’t want to ponder it any longer. I opened my eyes again.

“Fine, so I just stay away from the house.”

He said nothing, triggering within me the sinking feeling that no matter what I did, I would end up at that house on my birthday. Some things really were stuck in stone. Now the question became…if that part was inevitable, why send him back in time to tell me in the first place? I had no power to stop it.

I realized the answer tied in with the question I _so_ didn’t want to ask. Taking a deep breath, I forced out:

“What’d he do?”

Elliot's gaze met mine, and in his I saw such pain that my own heart broke upon seeing it and my anxiety levels rose.

“Elliot…what did he do?”

Elliot struggled for a solid minute before he murmured so quietly I barely heard him:

“He murdered your kitten.”

On pure instinct alone, I jumped to my feet as I yelled out: “NO!”.

Tears sprung to my eyes. Just a few days ago they’d taken me to the shelter to pick out a kitten to take home for my eighteenth birthday…and I’d already found one I was madly in love with. The thought of her dying...when she was only a baby…

“No, no, no, no, no…” the tears ran down my cheeks as my brain so cruelly created the scene of which Elliot had spoken. Before long I was on my knees, in his arms, grieving the death of a baby that hadn’t even happened yet. All I could say, over and over, was the phrase:

“Not her.”.

It took me a _long_ time to hear Elliot reminding me that right now, right this very second, she was alive, she was okay.

My breath continued to shudder out even as the hysterics began to pass; I sat my butt on the ground, wiped the tears from my cheeks, and stared at the waterfall for a long time in silence. Elliot sat beside me, tears drying on his own cheeks, one hand rubbing my back in a very soothing manner. I leaned into his arm, head resting against his, the motion feeling all too comfortable.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured.

I sniffled and looked down at my hands. “It’s not you who kills her.” I looked at him as an idea came to me. “Please tell me there’s a way we can save her now.”

He nodded. “Yes. Tell your family that you’d rather have a car. They’ll get so pissed about you demanding something that they’ll take away giving you a gift at all.”

“Okay.”

Elliot stroked the side of my head (the motion similar to if he was tucking a strand of hair behind my ear). “Your brother will beat you, though.”

“Better me than her.”

Hand against the back of my head now, Elliot leaned in and pressed a hard kiss to my forehead. “And I’ll find a family for her, cloaking her from your family in the off chance that they decide to surprise you. I have a feeling I’m not the only one who knows about my time travels.”

I groaned, rubbing the heels of my hands against my throbbing forehead. “What the hell does _that_ mean?”

The hand that was on the back of my head now went to my back and rubbed once more.

“That means it’s time I tell you the whole story and to do that, we’re going to want to be in those chairs.”

We moved accordingly and he began:

“It starts with the fact that the family you live with now, the one who you grew up with, is not your real family.” Okay, so I really wasn’t that surprised and after seeing this on my face, Elliot continued, “They’re evil beings who were tasked centuries ago with finding the one being that will lead evil to gain control over purity. There is always a fight for control between the two but right now purity holds the lead and has for centuries. So, this family somehow stumbled upon a seer who told them all about you. Where to find you, how to get you, _when_ you’d come into existence.”

“What’d they do to my, uh, birth family?”

_Please don’t say they killed them; please don’t say they killed them…_

“They wanted to kill them,” _gah!_ I cringed, “but opted instead to merely wipe their memories of your existence just before they stole you from them. The real trick was turning you evil, as your genes come from that of purity.”

I realized what he was saying.

“Nurture over nature,” I murmured.

He nodded, his mouth set in a grim line. “They had a son shortly before they kidnapped you, a son whose sole purpose was to torture you once you both reach puberty, because if you grew up in a life of hardship, you’d have none of the strengths that a life raised as a pure being offers: love, compassion, hope. You instead would see the world as this dark, bleak place not worth caring about. Am I wrong?”

I shook my head. As much as it pained me to admit, I had already given up on the world, mostly; part of me still held a tiny glimmer that maybe just maybe I’d get out of this hell. It didn’t take much to figure out what it would feel like to lose that entirely, and deep down, I knew I’d been mere inches from falling into that eternal abyss, might still be if this didn’t work to change the future he came from.

“I’m sorry,” I felt the need to say.

Elliot looked shocked. “Oh! No, no, no, it’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

I looked at my hands. Why did it feel like my fault?

“Hey.”

His gentle tone caught my attention, and looking at him, I saw only affection. He reached over and placed a hand against my cheek.

“Rick, you can’t change what you didn’t know. You’re a monster only if you leave here today with this knowledge and do nothing to change the outcome you know of. Are you planning on leaving here and not doing a thing?”

I shook my head.

“Then there’s still time, there’s still hope, all is not lost. You’re not doomed just yet.”

His words comforted.

“Okay, thanks. So, where is my true family? Are they still nearby? How do I end up killing my adopted brother?”

“Your true family is two towns over, also where you were born, and when this is all over, I will take you to them. I know how your, for lack of a better term, adopted family erased their memories, so I can get those back. As for your adopted brother, well, first thing you need to know is…”

Elliot then uttered four words I never expected to hear him say.

“You have magical powers.”


	8. Chapter 8

I really wanted to laugh, like… _really_ , but I didn’t mostly because Elliot was so dead-on serious about this. Though part of me still believed this was some sort of really elaborate, long on-going prank on me, I decided, for the time being, to at least try to go along with it.

“Okay…” I inwardly cringed at how skeptical I sounded, looked at Elliot to see if he was buying it, and felt my heart sink; he looked so disappointed. I scrambled to fix this. “Wait, wait, just…just give me a minute…to process.” There, that did it; his face brightened.

Of course, now I had the problem of: I actually had to believe him. Clearly, I sucked at pretending, so question was: how the hell was I supposed to believe that I, the most unimportant person to exist on this planet, had _powers_?

Elliot read me like a book.

“It doesn’t happen until your birthday, due to a clause your parents put on you, your powers specifically, in the event of their…” A look of abrupt realization crossed his face. “Uhm.”

My heart sank like lead. “I thought you said they were alive.”

“Well, technically, I said your family was alive, and, uh, there’s more to family than just the parents.”

I shot a dark look his way as the anger swelled up inside me.

“This is not a good moment to be defending yourself, asshole! Least of all on a fucking technicality!” I saw it in his eyes; my tone had just triggered his defenses.

“Well, it’s not _my_ fault that _you_ assumed something I never fucking said!”

Fuck! He was right. Why was I even mad anyway? I’d never met my real parents. They hadn’t raised me. I hadn’t formed any bonds with them.

I sighed as the answer came to me about two seconds later. I was mad because they signified a better life that I could’ve had. I was mad at this family I had now for killing them. I was mad that I’d had to grow up without knowing an ounce of good. I was mad that I was a victim of circumstances that had been beyond my control, that I never had a choice in the matter having been just a baby at the time. It wasn’t fair, damn it!

“I’m sorry, Rick,” Elliot murmured at me. The pain in his voice caused me to look at him, and right there in his eyes was the pain I had heard. He blamed himself for all of this. My anger flew out as quickly as it’d flown in, and I found myself going over to where he sat and kneeling before him, my hands resting on his legs.

“Why are you blaming yourself?” I asked him.

He stared down at me, his agony dissolving the mask he’d worn up until this moment; now I was looking at the real Elliot, the one from _his_ time. He looked…tired, mostly, and far older than nineteen.

“I don’t know why I blame myself. Logically, I know there’s nothing I could’ve done to prevent this from happening to you at all. Any time travel sends that person back into the body of their selves in whatever time they travel to.” My blank expression caused him to crack a smile. “Yeah, it’s really complicated but basically, I wanted to send myself back to when you were a baby, to entirely prevent you from being on this path now, but back when you were a baby, I was only one years old, and if I went back to that time, I’d be completely helpless to help you. So, then I wanted to go back to when you were thirteen, when the beatings started. Hell, any time sooner than now I wanted to go, but I _couldn’t_ …because until your eighteenth birthday, you are completely powerless because your parents thought they were protecting you by making you so mortal. I don’t think they ever dreamed your life would turn out like this. Hell, I seriously doubt they ever thought they’d die so young.

“And anyway, that means I could tell all of this to you earlier than this time now but there’d be nothing you could do to change a thing. Now is cutting it close, but now is really the only point in the timeline where I can really make any real attempt to change the future. So, I guess I blame myself because I hate feeling so helpless…and…if I’m being honest with myself…because I love you more than I can bear.”

All air rushed out of my lungs as if I’d been punched. He loved me?! We’d just fucking met _yesterday_!

He started to stand up and I moved out of the way, watching as he completed the action and headed over to the edge of the pool. He didn’t say anything else, just stared at the waterfall that continued to rage on, utterly oblivious to the drama near it.

The air that got sucked out I replaced with a couple of deep breaths. My mind was racing far faster than I was used to, and all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and pretend like none of this was my reality. It was dawning on me, and fast, however, that none of this was a joke. Elliot was not pranking me. This was all _real_.

With the air sufficiently in my lungs again, I slowly, cautiously you could say, made my way over to him.

“You love me?” I asked softly.

He chuckled once, glanced my way, and then looked down at his hands.

“I guess, technically, who I really love is the future you but I’m having a real hard time distinguishing between the two of you; other than he’s a raging evil asshole, and you’re not…yet.”

My mind jumped to the thing it always did whenever I heard about someone dating an asshole: it wondered _why_ someone would even bother.

“Elliot, do I abuse you in the future? Is that why you stay with me?”

He barked out a laugh that was anything but jovial.

“If you abused me, I wouldn’t be so damned confused right now. No, Rick, you don’t abuse me. You love me like no one else ever has. You hate every other person in the whole damn world, you don’t give two shits about wasting someone, but when it comes to me, you become the soft guy I see standing before me right now. I don’t know why, but I’m the only person in the world that you let yourself be completely vulnerable around, and you’re completely okay with that.”

The way I felt now, nearly in love…or maybe even past that point…after only a day, I could easily see this.

“Why do I feel the same way if I just met you?” I asked him.

He faced me, those golden browns holding my dark brown gaze with utter and total ease.

“Because our love goes beyond the construct of time; now, the future, the past, our future lives, past lives, parallel lives…these are all mere moments in time. We are destined, have always been destined, to fall madly in love with each other, and we always will be destined to do this. It’s hardly a bad thing, really, actually kind of comforting if you think about it, but I guess…I guess it gets confusing, falling in love with a guy you met all of a day ago.”

I abruptly began laughing. “You got that right.” Oh, god. What the hell was I getting into??

Elliot drew near, and though I should’ve been fighting it, I could feel the pull towards him as clear as I could feel the wind blowing gently around us. I placed my hands on his chest which was warm, soft, familiar; I knew this body as well as my own. As his hands rested on my hips, this feeling inside me grew ever stronger. I took a deep breath, looked up into his eyes as I exhaled, and said:

“I love you, too.”

He said nothing in response, just leaned in for a kiss that melted the last of my defenses around my heart. He’d been right earlier, when he’d said future me was vulnerable around him, and that I had no problems with it. It was because deep in my very soul, I knew with absolute conviction that Elliot Kellen was the one person in the entire universe that would never, under any circumstances, ever bring me any pain. I mean, for fuck’s sake the guy stayed with me even when I was the most evil son of a bitch in existence. If _that_ wasn’t true love, what in the fuck was, ya know?

After the kiss, my mind turned back to these so-called powers I was going to be getting.

“So, what can I expect, powers-wise, on my eighteenth birthday that’s arriving in four days?” A sudden thought crossed my mind and I spoke it: “And do you have any powers besides the empathy thing you have going with me?”

“Well, first of all, the empathy thing extends to everyone, not just you. It’s just strongest with you because of our bond; you’re the only one I can feel at any time no matter how far away from me you are. Yes, I do have other powers, and as for yours,” he let out a wry chuckle, “yours are pretty fucking extraordinary. That is, once you can control them.”

I waited for him to continue, but he just stood there staring at me like I was some beautiful treasure he didn’t think he’d ever get to see, and while this flattered me greatly, I was dying to know the answer.

“Dude.”

He blinked. “What?”

“I don’t know if I can read minds in the future or what but right now, I can’t, so what are my powers? Or your powers if you want to do those first.”

“Right, right; do you mind if we sit?”

Again? I was beginning to wonder if there was another reason for having to sit all the time. Regardless, I decided I didn’t want to know this, didn’t _need_ to know this, so I nodded at him. As he sat down, I got the urge to sit on his lap, to cuddle in his arms. He grinned up at me.

“Yes, Rick, the chair will support us both, and yes, I would love it if you got on my lap to cuddle with me.”

The smile was automatic, the joy was like sunshine in my heart, and I had to hold back the oddest urge to squeal with excitement. Elliot’s smile grew as I got on his lap, and I didn’t need the empathy power to know that that smile of his came from what I was feeling at the moment as well as his own excitement.

He kissed me after we got comfortable and I forgot all about what I’d wanted to know as I kissed back. He, bless him, remembered; after indulging me for several, long, blissful minutes, he broke the kiss and continued on with his story.

“So, your powers…the most powerful one you have would be plasma balls…with a twist.”

“Uh, twist?” I asked him.

“They’re made out of lava.”

WHAT?! I scrambled off his lap, not sure where it was I wanted to go or what I wanted to do so I ended up just frantically pacing.

“You’re telling me that I, ME, am capable of producing motherfucking LAVA?!”

He was standing now, too, sort of reaching out for me, a look of concern on his face.

“Easy, hon, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

“Well, _yeah_ , Elliot, it’s fucking _lava!_ ”

“I don’t mean that, Rick, I mean you’re likely to—”

I tripped on a root I hadn’t seen and went sprawling towards him. He caught me at the last moment, laughing as he pulled me back to my feet.

“Trip,” he finished.

I got lost in the love that shone on his face, lost in the fact that someone on this planet had actually fallen in love with _me_ and…apparently didn’t regret it. Seconds later, though, my mind was right back to freaking out about the fucking lava balls I’d produce. Elliot let me go as I moved out of his arms to pace again, slower this time so I didn’t trip again.

“Lava balls…”

“Plasma, technically, and—”

I looked at him as science knowledge broke through my shock. “Wait. Plasma is ionized gas, I thought. If I’m throwing lava, why are you calling it plasma?”

Elliot blinked with surprise. “Uh. That’s just what you’ve always called it.”

I sighed. “Elliot, you never told me I become a total idiot in the future.”

He smiled at this and when I glared at him, he started laughing.

“Dude!” I exclaimed.

“I’m sorry! I’m not laughing at you, I swear. I’m actually thrilled right now. I think in your anger at your brother, when the power first formed and he asked you what the hell it was, you forgot your science, and since you continued to live in anger you just…never remembered...and anyway, the fact that you’re lecturing me about science right now…the fact that we’re possibly renaming your powers…it just…gives me hope.”

I took a deep breath, let it out slowly. “Well, since I am calm now, and _can_ remember science, I refuse to blatantly ignore it so, lava spheres it is.”

Elliot bit his lip, looking like an overexcited schoolboy.

“Stop it,” I told him, feeling as my heart violently pulled towards him.

“Sorry.”

Ugh, I just wanted to kiss him.

“So, couple of questions here," I spoke, "Uhm. How do I not burn the ever living shit out of myself with those lava spheres and how do I get the lava forming into a sphere in the first place?”

He shrugged. “Beats the hell out of me.”

Heh.

“Great. I’m not so sure I like this, Elliot. I mean…I won’t hurt myself but what if I accidentally hurt someone else? You said earlier the words ‘once you control them’ which means first getting them, I won’t have any control and…uhm…”

The excitement had returned on his face, my heart reacting even stronger than the first time. Unable to withstand the intensity, I went over to him and kissed him just to try to relieve some of the pressure.

“Stop it,” I growled at him afterwards.

“I’m sorry, I am. I can’t help it. I’ve tried for so long to get you to see you have goodness inside of you, I just…to actually _see_ _it_ firsthand…”

I think I could understand what he was getting at. I kissed him again, softer this time, and then asked: “So, do I have other powers?”

He nodded. “Telekinesis, invisibility, and you can freeze time.” Holy hell…“And there’s something you need to know about that last one.”

Uh, I needed to wrap my head around this in the first place but, sure, why not??

“What’s that?”

“It’s the reason your adopted family killed your parents.”

I, for lack of a better term, froze.


	9. Chapter 9

Elliot saw the look on his beloved’s face and knew what it meant. The fact that the guy wasn’t responding to his attempts to snap him out of it was the next indicator of what was to come. He felt guilty as hell about this. He should’ve known he was overloading the guy’s brain, that the longer he spent explaining what Rick needed to know, the closer it brought him to this moment in time.

Elliot worked to calm himself down, because within the next few minutes, Ricter was going to need him.

*~*~*~*

I couldn’t breathe, and the realization that I couldn’t breathe filled my body up with utter panic. I sank to the ground, hyperventilating. There was this god awful roar in my ears. I felt a hand against my arm, and from a long distance it seemed heard Elliot faintly telling me it’s okay.

“I can’t…I…c…jus…I…” oh god. Oh god.

“Rick, it’s okay. Can you hear me right now?”

“B…bare…ly…”

“That’s okay. Listen to the calm in my voice. You are not in danger.”

Right.

What if Kai suddenly showed up?

What if he came to hurt me? What if he hurt Elliot?

What if he had with him my precious baby kitten?

Elliot saw the tears start.

“Okay, okay, easy does it. Ricter, if you can understand me, can you tell me four things you can touch right now?”

I shook my head. I couldn’t do it. I made strangled noises, trying to speak.

“You can, Rick, you can do this. Just take your time. You got this, hon."

With a trembling hand, I reached out and laid it against his chest.

“Y-y…ch…chest.”

“Can you feel my heartbeat?”

I could, and the steady rhythm began to soothe. I nodded.

“What’s another thing you can touch?”

I moved my hand to the ground but before I said anything, I rested my free hand against his chest; his heartbeat grounded me. He laid a hand over mine, soothing me further.

“T…" I took a moment to just _breathe_ , "the grass.”

“Is it wet?”

“No.”

“You’re doing great. Tell me something else you can touch.”

The leg of his chair.

“Is it metal or plastic?”

“Metal.” Breathing came even easier.

“One more thing you can touch.”

I reached for his face, making him smile, triggering my own smile.

“How does that make you feel?”

“Loved,” I replied, and leaned in to kiss him, the panic already gone. “Safe,” I continued between kisses, “cherished, adored, respected.”

He made little noises in the back of his throat for every kiss, and after the last one, something powerful surged within him, causing him to lower me to my back, kissing me as if this was our last moment together. My heart raced, my breathing became faster, I couldn’t get him close enough no matter what I tried, he began to grind against me and my own hips responded.

It wasn’t until I felt him taking my shirt off that I became fully aware of just what we were doing. Upon opening my eyes after breaking the kiss, I discovered he was shirtless, his pants were unfastened, I was shirtless, and his hands had frozen in the midst of unfastening my jeans. Both of us were breathless and I knew without a doubt that both of us were hard.

“Uhm,” was all I could think to say.

He studied my exposed chest for a moment before he met my gaze, looking just as perplexed as I felt.

“Well.” He cleared his throat and without another word, got off me, found his shirt, and put it back on.

I suddenly worried that he thought I was rejecting him.

“I’m not, you know,” I told him, unaware that I had left out key words. He looked at me with great confusion.

“You’re not what?”

“Rejecting you.”

His confusion cleared, replaced by a smile that seemed self-conscious.

“Oh, I know. Empathy, remember?”

D'oh! Right. Where was my brain??

“I’m not either," he said then.

Now I was confused.

“What?”

He laughed up at the sky, running a hand through his hair.

“Our brains are fried.” With a sigh that actually sounded happy, he looked back down at me. “I’m not rejecting you either.”

Oh. It was my turn to smile self-consciously.

“I know.”

“Good, good.” He took a deep breath and let it out. From there, silence settled between us. I’d say it settled around us but the roar of the waterfall never ceased, so…

“So, what are your other powers?” I asked.

He started, apparently having been lost in thought, but answered the question anyway:

“Well, they’re not as impressive as yours. One I can’t really use at all, though it is kind of cool. The one I can’t use is a teleportation power and the reason I can’t use it is because lightning shoots down to take me where I want to go, it also shoots down to deliver me at my destination. It’s not only flashy as hell, it’s loud. Though this world knows all about magic, people still panic over seeing lightning _so close_ and the third catch with that power is it blocks my ability to turn off my empathy power. So I feel everything upon reaching my destination, and most of the time it is sheer and utter panic that drains the ever living life out of me. My other power, and this is going to sound so stupid but I swear it’s actually pretty handy: I can conjure large bodies water. Well, okay, that’s actually an exaggeration. I can conjure a small-pond amount, but I mean, people typically don’t like it when that much water is dumped on them all at once and, since it takes a minute or so for it all to dump, it gives me time to get the fuck out of there.”

Throughout his explanation, the poor guy looked far younger than nineteen; his insecurity about his powers was so deep. I wondered how many people had told him his powers were stupid. I crawled my way over to him, settled myself upon his lap, legs wrapped around his waist, arms resting on his shoulders. He held my gaze, still looking insecure and now just a bit curious.

“Whatcha doin?”

“I think those powers are cool,” I told him in all honesty.

He scoffed lightly and broke eye contact to look over my shoulder. “Sure they are, Rick.”

“Elliot, I mean that. I’m sorry that the people in your time are unappreciative little shits.”

His silence worried me, especially since his breathing had fallen out of its usual rhythm. Had I gone too far?

*~*~*~*

Elliot was absolutely drowning in love. Wave after wave of the emotion he’d long since gotten accustomed to was slamming into him with new force. It was hard to breathe correctly; he was nearly insane with the feeling. Desperately, his body wanted a release, but even he knew if they were to have sex, it would only serve to strengthen these feelings further. He could make love with Ricter for the rest of his life and never, ever find the release his body claimed it needed.

He kept his gaze away from Ricter’s because right now, if he were to look into those beautiful brown eyes, he’d soon find himself hard as a rock (again) and buried deep within the warmth of Ricter, neither of them wanting to stop and right now that just…couldn’t happen; it was too soon.

It was then his brain remembered, quite randomly, to check the time, and what he saw, paired with his stomach starting to growl, gave him the exact excuse he needed.

*~*~*~*

My concern grew when Elliot all of a sudden maneuvered me off his lap and stood up. I watched from the ground, unsure why I was feeling like this was some massive rejection, as he folded up our chairs, put them into their bags, and carried them back to their hiding place. When he returned, I had just gotten to my feet, trying desperately to not let my teenage emotions blow this wildly out of proportion.

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly, unable to meet his gaze.

“What? Why? You didn’t do anything.”

I reluctantly looked at him to see if he looked as confused as he sounded. He did.

“I just…never mind.”

Elliot sighed. “Alright, so I already know.”

I figured.

“Look, Rick, I…I…” His struggle had me looking at him with interest. He’d been staring at me but when I looked, he suddenly found his hands to be very intriguing. “I want you more than you can possibly imagine, and what you said about my powers…It means a lot. It’s just…way too soon. And we should get going, anyway, it’s nearly two, and I was thinking I could get you some lunch, if you wanted. Uhm.”

I made my way over to him, utterly mesmerized by his shyness. I’d taken him to have strong self-confidence and seeing him be so… _human_ made him seem much more of an equal than out of my league.

“Elliot,” I murmured when I stopped before him; I placed a hand under his chin in an attempt to get him to look at me (which he did), then placed my hand on his cheek. I didn’t know what else I could say, so I just kissed him. Joy filled me from head to toe as he instantly responded by kissing me back, pulling me in close and holding me against him.

As the kiss came to an end, I stayed in his arms and rested my forehead against his.

“I wish you knew,” he murmured.

“Hmm?”

“How much I love you. I wish I could show you.”

I had a feeling this was a thing he did in the future too, and I knew my response never changed.

“You do show me, Ell.”

He placed a hand on my cheek, looked up into my eyes, and then pressed a kiss to my forehead.

“It’s not nearly enough.” He started to turn away from me, and I caught his arm.

“Wait a minute. Yes it is. It’s the most anyone’s ever given me. Elliot, I don’t need to have that empathy power of yours to know how strong your feelings are, how deep they run, because _I feel the same_. And, really, man, just one look into your eyes and I can see it clear as day. Why do you insist that you’re not enough?” Horror struck me then. “Wait, does future me say you’re not enough??”

“Well, no, not really…I…I shouldn’t talk about this, this is not what I came here for.”

Oh, god. I really was a monster in the future.

“How could I feel this way and not shower you with utter adoration at all times?”

Elliot looked at me with such heartbreaking longing, and I knew that future me may not have abused him into staying, but had severely neglected him. Standing before me was a guy who’d hung on for just an ounce of romance that he got only every now and again, who desperately wanted to let go in the moment now and let himself drown in the attention present me offered him. Standing before me was a guy who knew if he let that happen, it’d be that much more difficult to withstand living in the future with a guy who had long since stopped doting upon him if we failed to save the future.

I was absolutely torn. Either way, one of us got screwed. If I did what I really wanted to do, which was shower him with all the love and attention he deserved, he may be going back to a future that, while the world was better, the guy was still negligent, which would hurt him more in the long run.

If I didn’t…that meant fighting these feelings now, which might help him in the future but would distract me now, maybe even weaken me, risking that the future he came here to change would not change at all.

I didn’t know what to do. Elliot approached me, feeling my conflict.

“Table it for now,” he suggested softly, “and let’s go get something to eat.”

I suppose that was fair. I nodded. As I began to follow him back out of this magical place, I asked:

“Is it okay to hold your hand or?”

He looked at me, smiled, and took my hand.

“Like I’d ever say no to that regardless,” he claimed.

My heart soared.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *********TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!*********TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!*********TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!*********
> 
> Suggestions of rape (discussion only, no actual rape)  
> Getting beaten up  
> Agonizing pain

He took me to a local diner in town, where I ordered chicken tenders with a side of hush puppies, and a house salad; this brought a smile to his lips. When I opened my mouth to defend my choices, he said right along with me:

“It’s my comfort food.”

I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised, but I was.

“I still order this in the future?”

He nodded, looking amused. “Whenever we eat out, it’s the first thing you look for.”

Huh. Some things really didn’t change.

As we waited, and later as we ate, conversation revolved around him. He knew everything about me, I reminded him, but I knew nothing about him; he was more than happy to fill me in. The parts that really stuck out were: his love of nature, his love of animals, his coming out at sixteen years old when his best friend kissed him one drunk night at a party and Elliot had done absolutely nothing to stop him, which led to utter confusion between the pair, and the eventual dissolving of their friendship since his friend vehemently denied, and apparently would spend his life denying, that he was gay even when reminded that such a thing as being bisexual exists. It’s sad how people forget that.

I learned that, in his timeline, he went off to college to be a teacher and ended up achieving that dream, working alternatively with middle schoolers and high schoolers; said the job paid shit but he loved the connections he made with the kids, and loved helping them.

It made me wonder, as we got into his car.

“I…in the future, I mean…hurt kids, so…why did you stay with me?”

Elliot looked at me with horror. “You’ve misunderstood. You don’t target children. If anything, children and animals are the ones you avoid hurting at all costs. It’s just sometimes, often times, they were collateral damage when your goons, who are total fucking idiots by the way, didn’t think to check for either when attacking. They didn’t care like you did, they just wanted to destroy whatever they could get their hands on, regardless to the cost.”

I swallowed hard, staring at my hands. “Sounds like hell.”

Elliot didn’t reply, but he didn’t need to. As the car pulled out of the parking lot, tears welled up in my eyes, and I looked away from him out my window so he wouldn’t see me crying. I know that I _now_ was not responsible for these heinous acts in the future that he’d lived through, that that timeline was not the one I was currently living, but that didn’t stop me from feeling guilty as hell, and, more so, scared. I was scared because if Elliot had not come back to this time to stop me, I would have become that monster. I was scared that it might still happen anyway. I was scared about the fact that I _needed_ to be stopped from becoming that monster. I was scared that I was capable of such evil, and I absolutely hated myself for it.

When I started wondering if it’d just be better if I killed myself, Elliot slammed on the brakes, realized he’d done so in the middle of some heavy traffic (people blared their horns behind him), he quickly started forward again, managing to find a place to pull into a few miles down the road (it was a short strip of gravel that lead to one of the fields that ran parallel to the highway). Once the car was safely parked, he slammed the back of his hand into my upper arm in what was a back-handed slap.

“Ow!” I cried out, rubbing my arm. “What the hell was that for?!”

He glared at me with an anger that tied into his love for me, anger that came from heartbreak, from fear.

“How many times do I have to fucking tell you that suicide is not the god damned answer?!” He unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the car, slamming the door closed after him. Though I understood his anger, I still felt that gut-wrenching fear that I always felt the moment someone was mad at me, or mad near me. I sat in the car, scared to death, watching as Elliot went to the front of the car and leaned back onto the hood, head bowed, breathing heavily (as evidenced by his shoulder movement). I knew eventually I’d have to go out and talk this out with him, and I would…once we both calmed down.

When the fear subsided, roughly eight minutes later, I cautiously made my way out of the car and over to him. His head was no longer bowed; instead he was gazing at the field before us. Right now, farmers were making hay bales of the grass they’d mowed. His hands rested on either side of him on the hood of the car, bracing himself against it. He did not look at me as I slid up onto the hood beside him, letting my legs dangle over the edge. I looked down at my hands resting in my lap, knowing I needed to apologize, but anxiety that he’d yell at me some more (even though I deserved that) making it difficult to speak.

He waited.

“I’m not going to apologize for thinking logically,” I said first, “but I will apologize for the effect it has on you. Elliot, if I’m not alive, there’s no way I become evil.”

“Stop,” he ordered. “Just fucking stop. You are not the only one in this damn equation and as long as I’m alive—unless you plan on killing me, too—you’re going to stay alive. Death is not the only answer.”

Tears sprung to my eyes as his words _‘Unless you plan on killing me, too’_ stung.

“I’m not evil right now, Elliot.”

He looked at me, confused. “Yes, I know that.”

“Do you?” I wondered.

“What are you getting at?”

I hopped off the hood of his car and faced him.

“You said yourself that you were having a hard time distinguishing between the two of me. Which must mean you think I’m already evil, and if I’m already evil, what the fuck are you even doing here? Clearly you already failed or you’re too late!”

“Nobody said anything about you being evil now, Rick!”

I impatiently wiped at the tears on my cheeks. “Then why would you fucking say to me _‘unless you plan on killing me, too’?_ If you know I’m not evil, then you’d know I’d never plan on killing you! If you truly thought I wasn’t evil, you’d never have said that!” His confusion not clearing up served only to frustrate me. “You know what? Fuck you. Take me home.”

I walked around to the passenger side of the car and got in, slamming the door shut after me. He stood there for a long time before slowly making his way into the driver’s side seat, still wearing that dumbstruck expression on his face. He didn’t start the car when he got in; instead, he sat there staring out at the windshield. I was just about to grab the keys from him and demand that I drive myself when he spoke.

“I didn’t mean it like that, Rick. When I said I couldn’t tell the difference between the two, I meant when you dote upon me. In the future, when you get it into your head to pay attention to me, it’s not different than what you were doing earlier. The similarity ends there, though. I know you’re not evil now, that’s the whole point. I’m supposed to be keeping that the same, past the point of no return.” He looked at me. “And I am doing a piss poor job of it.”

I threw my hands in the air as much as the low ceiling of the car allowed.

“That’s not much better, Elliot! You’ve just said it again.”

“What'd I say?!"

“Admitting you’re doing a piss poor job, you’re saying I’m turning evil!!"

He groaned and went to hit his head on the steering wheel.

“Stop twisting my words, Ricter! That’s not how I fucking meant it! You’re getting on my damn nerves.”

“Then why not take me home and let me turn evil? Just give up!”

“STOP IT!” He roared at me. When he looked at me, I saw an emotion that cut through my anger: fear.

Despite my own fear at being screamed at (yes, I deserved it), I found myself asking why he was so scared.

“Because I don’t want to lose you, damn it! It’s not just the fate of the world that’s at stake here! I want us to survive, too! I want us to make it into a better future! I want us to be happy again! For better or for worse I fucking love you with everything I’ve got; I am completely yours! So _please_. Help me out. Please want to live, please have faith that just because you have turned evil in my future doesn’t mean you will turn evil in your future from this timeline now. Ricter, I can’t live without you, so please, I am begging you, _please_ fight this. Stay alive, and _fight this_. You turning evil is not inevitable. I swear to god, the future is never set in stone.”

A tear escaped down his cheek as he looked forward again, and with it, the last of my anger dissipated.

“Okay,” I said softly. “I’m sorry. Not using this as an excuse but I just…I got freaked out.”

He looked at me with total understanding, let out a sigh, and stroked the side of my face. “Of course you did. Any sane person would.”

I grinned. “Ah, so at least you think I’m sane.”

He gave me a look of resignation, sighed, placed his hand on the back of my head, said: “Come here, asshole,”, then pulled me towards him for a kiss which I happily received and returned.

After which, he took me home, told me to take a couple days to sort out all this new information, and said he’d check in on me tomorrow. When he was gone, I looked at the front door of the house that looked more foreboding than ever, especially with the sacrifice I’d have to perform if my precious baby kitten had any chances of living.

Inside, all three of them were in the living room. I could hear the TV was on but kept my focus solely on him. His parents greeted me kindly enough, and just as I was about to chicken out of this entirely, his father asked me if I was excited about the new kitten that would be here in a few days.

Show time.

Wishing I was clad in the thickest of armor, wishing I didn’t feel so damn naked and vulnerable, I took a couple of steps closer to them and said the words I knew would cause me nothing but agony:

“Actually, I was thinking...since money is not an issue, I was wondering if I could get this smoking-hot, brand new car I saw at the dealer’s yesterday.”

I waited for the inevitable, and they did not disappoint.

“Excuse me?!” Kai’s mother demanded. Kai was looking at me with suspicion, and I knew if ever I needed a poker face, this moment was it.

His father stood up to face me directly, nothing but sheer anger on his face.

“Did I hear you right? Are you actually telling us that you don’t want the gift we were going to give you out of the goodness of our hearts? That you dare demand something from us? We give you food, clothing, a warm place to sleep at night. Just where the FUCK do you get off asking us for shit?!”

 _Stay cool, honey,_ Elliot’s voice sounded in my mind, _stay calm. They can’t kill you. They need you._

Yeah, well, not being able to kill me didn’t mean they wouldn’t bring me close to it.

_This needs to happen. I promise this will be the last beating you’ll get from them. After this, pack a bag and hide it. Tomorrow, when I come to pick you up, we’ll sneak it out of here and you can come stay with me until your birthday. Just…keep hanging in there._

I’ll try…

_Rick?_

Yeah?

_I love you._

I—

“HELLO!” Kai’s father harshly clapped his hands mere inches from my face, causing me to jump back in fear, during which I lost my balance and fell onto my ass. The trio laughed.

“Serves you right, asshole,” Kai commented. Neither parent negated this. I shakily got to my feet.

“Kai,” his mother said, looking at the boy, “I thought we told you to keep a handle on him.”

“I did!”

“Clearly, you didn’t do it well enough if he dares suggest our gift for his birthday is not enough.”

Oh, god, I was going to pay for that.

“What _are_ we going to do with you?” Kai's father asked.

“I say tie him up buck naked in the basement and let him rot for a week,” Kai suggested. In his eyes, I saw the raw desire. Leaving me down there wouldn’t be the worst of it, making what I went through with Fredrick seem like heaven. I swallowed hard, praying that it wouldn’t come to _that_.

Mercifully, his parents disagreed.

“No, that’ll take too long.”

“We gang rape him.”

His parents looked at him like he had three heads.

“Fine!" Kai exclaimed, sounded exasperated. "Not us, but I know some buddies who would _love_ to teach him a few things about sex.”

My stomach twisted horribly.

“For fuck’s sake, Kai, go fuck some girls,” his father demanded, “we are not raping your brother.”

Kai scowled and it was in that moment I suddenly realized that the kid was just as a gay as I was. He was just afraid to admit it.

Kai’s father’s knee rammed into my crotch (that’ll teach me to stop paying attention); I let out a loud gasp as pain seemed to burn through every nerve I had. Just as I was about to go down, just as my legs gave out, the man grabbed me by the arms and squeezed, tight. I found air enough to let out a scream of agony. As it faded and the man released me to the floor, Kai came over, grabbed my hand, and bent it until it snapped at the wrist. If I thought the pain from my cuts was bad, nothing compared to the pain of a bone breaking. I ended up passing out.


	11. Chapter 11

When I came to, I was on a bed in a room that smelled inherently of hospital. I felt groggy, my eyelids felt heavy, and still I sensed that I was not alone in the room. The first thing that came to mind for me to ask that person was:

“Did one of my internal organs get stolen?”

The person laughed very briefly, and then Elliot answered:

“No, all your organs are intact. Doc said when you come to that I should ask if you remember what happened.”

I turned my head to my right where I saw Elliot sitting close by, right leg bouncing impatiently, eyes cast down on his hands that he wrung in his lap. He was the epitome of repressed emotions, about to burst any second; I could guess which emotions, and I could guess which one was strongest at the moment.

I decided the best course of action was to try to distract him. Unfortunately, all I could think to ask was:

“Why do I feel so…disoriented?”

“That’s the painkillers they gave you.” He looked at me. “Your wrist is broken.”

The memory, albeit fuzzy, came back to me, and I nodded.

“I remember.” I cast my gaze then to my right wrist, now wrapped in a dark blue cast. Interesting.

Elliot stood up. “I should go notify him that you’re awake.”

I let him go, my brain too drugged for me to hold a steady conversation with him anyway, even though I knew we needed to talk about this.

He returned a few minutes later, a young male doctor (barely in his thirties) in tow. The doctor checked my vitals while asking me all these questions about what I’d gone through. I had to lie, of course, and anyway as I spoke, I kept my gaze on Elliot who was fidgety as all hell. Though he chose to stand by the window, his hands flitted about aimlessly, picking at this, touching that, turning this, righting that. The only time he stilled is when the doctor finished his evaluation and told me I could go home. I thanked the man, watched as he left, and then looked at Elliot.

“Well. Guess I’m alright.”

Elliot scoffed but said nothing, merely gathered up his coat and keys, headed over to the door, and waited. I discovered I wasn’t so drugged that I couldn’t walk on my own and ended up following a very upset Elliot to his car in total silence.

When we arrived, and parked, at a place that was not the one I was expecting, I looked at him with utter confusion.

“This is not my home.”

“It is now.”

“But all my stuff is back—”

“While your adopted family was out dropping you off at a hospital that was farther than necessary,” his face took on a look of pure, white-hot rage at that, “I broke into the house, gathered your stuff, brought it here, and then drove to where they took you.”

“How’d you kn—,” I remembered he said we shared a profound bond that was stronger than anything else in our lives, “Never mind.”

“I’m not letting you back into that house. Oh and here.” He reached into his shirt pocket, pulled out some shiny gray thing (that my brain belatedly realized was a key), and offered it to me. I looked at the key for a second, then up at his face.

“Isn’t it a little early in our relationship to move in together?” I joked.

He didn’t laugh. He didn’t so much as crack even the tiniest of grins. He just stared at me, serious and angry, waiting for me to take the key. I felt the stirrings of anxiety as I did so, suddenly unable to look at him again or speak.

He got out of the car and headed into the front entrance of the apartment building. Though he hadn’t slammed the car door after him, or the entrance door to the building, I still flinched when each latched into its rightful place. After sitting in the car, alone, for a few minutes, I finally got the nerve to go inside. Drugged or not, we were going to talk about this, because he needed to get those emotions out, and if I had to be the proverbial punching bag then so be it. Hell, maybe being drugged would lessen the emotional blows somehow.

There was a number on the key he’d given me: 05. Using common sense, I found the door with the number 05 painted on it, and tried the lock. Right as I was putting the key in, it occurred to me that he would not have locked the door after him, not likely anyway. Still, I finished the action of unlocking the door, pulled the key out, and walked in.

The room before me was…surprising. I had expected barely furnished, walls with peeling wallpaper, a kitchen that looked like it hadn’t been updated (decoration-wise and appliance-wise) since the late 60s, but this apartment was quite modern. Okay, so I don’t know anything about design or whatever, but the kitchen (located to my left about seven feet away from the door) had up-to-date appliances, clean flooring, clean walls; the main area of the room had light blue walls, light pine wood flooring, and bright lighting from the two ceiling fans, one that was near the entrance, and one that was just past where he’d set up the living room area.

The living room area: there was a full couch (upon which Elliot was currently sitting) and coffee table, both situated on a beach-themed rug; the TV was mounted on the wall parallel to them. There was only one other door and that was past the kitchen. When I went to explore, I saw that it was the bathroom. As I came back out, I noted the dresser in the far corner across the room (that would be the far right hand corner of the room if one was looking from the entrance). My suitcase and a couple of duffle bags rested beside it.

I turned my attention to Elliot.

“This is a gorgeous apartment.”

“Thanks.”

“How do you afford it?”

“Just do.”

Right. I joined him on the couch.

“Are you mad at me?”

He blinked and looked at me, still angry but now puzzled as well.

“Why would I be mad at you?”

“Well, you _are_ mad.”

“Not at you, Ricter.” He looked back at the TV. “And I’m not going to talk about it.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want to.”

There was a warning edge to his tone telling me to back off. Now, maybe it's because I'm a seventeen year old male, maybe it's just because I'm stupid, whatever the reason, I didn’t back down.

“You should talk about it.”

“I’m not going to, so just drop it, Ricter.” He looked at me with an expression filled with that same warning I’d heard in his tone. “Now.”

I took a moment of silence to formulate the words I wanted to say next.

“Elliot, it’s not healthy to repress emotions.”

His expression darkened. 

“Why aren’t you listening to me? I. Don’t. Want. To. Talk!”

I gave up.

“Fine! Repress your anger. Repress your guilt! See how well that turns out when some tiny thing snaps the last nerve right in two and you fucking lose it, lashing out at someone totally innocent who doesn’t even deserve your rage!”

“The last fucking thing I need right now, Ricter, is some god damn _high school student_ lecturing me with psychology! When I want to talk, I will fucking talk! Get the fuck off my ass about it!”

He got up, went over to the entrance, grabbed one of the keys that hung on a key holder located on the wall to the right of the entrance, and left the apartment with a slam of the door.

He returned around nine that night, about five hours later, carrying in with him some Chinese takeout. I was located on the couch where I had been curled up under a blanket (the apartment was chilly). Upon his entrance, however, I sat up, shrugging the blanket off in the process.

“I’m sorry,” I told him as he hung up his keys.

He looked at me then, significantly calmer, and even smiled a little.

“We’ll talk about it after we eat. Come here, I’ll show you what I got.”

I stood up, stretched my stiff muscles, and then joined him in the kitchen. To my delight, he showed me chicken lo mein, General Tso’s chicken, beef and broccoli, rice, orange chicken, and some fortune cookies.

“I’m guessing from the joy in yer eyes that I got the order right.”

I met his gaze. “Tell me you ordered stuff _you_ liked as well.”

“When it comes to Chinese food, our tastes are the same.” He placed a hand against the back of my head and pressed a tender kiss to my forehead. As he met my gaze again afterwards, he added: “You’re forgiven.”

My heart did a little dance in my chest while he got out plates and forks.

After dinner, I went to help him clean up since there wasn’t a dishwasher.

“What’re you doing?” he asked when I joined him at the sinks and took the towel he’d slung over his shoulder. There also wasn’t a drying rack.

“Helping you with the dishes,” I explained to him.

“Ricter, you’re my guest and your wrist is broken. Sit down, watch some TV. I got the dishes.”

“Elliot, I’m not _just_ your guest. I’m your b—” I realized we’d never actually defined what _this_ was between us. In the future, sure, we were married, but right now? We’d never officially stated we were dating. “Uh, I was raised to be a courteous guest, my wrist is fine, and I want to help. So. Please let me.”

He wasn’t fooled one bit. He took the towel from my hands to dry his own with, set the towel beside his sink that was filling up with sudsy water, turned off the faucet, looked at me straight on, and said:

“You almost said boyfriend. Do you want us to be boyfriends?”

I swallowed at a throat that suddenly went dry.

“Uh.”

“Yes or no, Rick.”

“There’s the whole time travel—”

“Yes, or no, Ricter; I’m not asking again.”

Oh my god! Fine, if he wanted such a direct answer! The fear that he’d not agree with it was nearly tearing me apart, though. I wanted, more than anything, to not have to answer this at all, and I regretted, badly, slipping up earlier; I should’ve just kept my damn mouth shut. I took a minute, holding up my forefinger of my good hand to gain that minute in order to gather the courage I needed. When I managed to muster up just enough:

“Yes, I do.”

I could’ve sworn the anxiety was going to seize my heart then and there, and if not that, I figured he was going to reject me, which would tear my very soul to itty bitty irreparable pieces.

“Now was that so hard?” he asked, turning back towards the sink.

I stared at him, unblinkingly (at first), as he washed the first dish, rinsed it, and set it in the sink before me. After the third dish, he realized something was up and paused to look at me, his expression transitioning from concerned to one of uncertainty upon seeing the look on my face.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” he asked.

“You…” Oh god, now I had to actually _ask him_ if he wanted to date me. I’ve never asked anyone if they wanted to date me.

“Yes? Spit it out. I what, Ricter?”

 “D…di…d-uh…” My breath was seizing in my throat, and I was aware of just how painfully awkward I was acting. The man was patient as hell, waiting the entire time it took for me to stammer out the rest of the question: “Do…y-you...uh…want to…erm…I mean…yeah to d…date!...Uh…me?”

 _There’s no damn way in hell he’d ever say yes after the way you slaughtered that question,_ I told myself.

Elliot, much to my surprise, took my face in his hands and kissed me. My heart went from feeling like it was being weighed down to soaring on weightless air.

“Yes, I would love to,” Elliot answered afterwards.

“Really??” I realized it was stupid to be surprised; he’d told me we were meant to be, this timeline, his timeline, any time in this universe.

“Someday, hon,” Elliot said with great amusement, “I really think you’re gonna live a life where you without a doubt know just how much you mean to me, awkward or not.” He gave one affectionate stroke to my cheek and then returned to washing the dishes. I decided it was high time I actually make good on my earlier insistence about helping him. It took us only a few minutes to finish the rest of the dishes and then…it was time.


	12. Chapter 12

As we got settled on the couch, snuggled together under the blanket, the TV on but the volume low so we could talk, he spoke first:

“So, as you can imagine, I did a lot of thinking the five hours I was out. You were right, that I was feeling angry and guilty about what had happened. I think that’s to be expected, though. I mean…I’m the one who said you _had_ to go through that.”

“If it kept them away from the kitten, Elliot, I’ve no regrets. Whatever it took to draw their attention away; that was the point.”

“Except it didn’t work; I heard them talking of getting the kitten _anyway_.”

I bolted upright, away from him.

“WHAT?!”

“It’s okay!” He gestured at me to return to him, and I did, reluctantly. “I have her cloaked.”

A new fear was born.

“What if, upon not being able to find her, they try for another animal??”

“I thought of that, too, and that’s where I was at today. The shelters here don’t close until eight, and there are a lot of shelters, so once I calmed down, I gathered a list of all the shelters in the area, noted their addresses, and I went to each and every one. There, I gave the name of your family, and told them under no circumstances are they to allow any of them to adopt an animal.

“At first people thought I was the bad guy, thinking I was trying to prevent animals from finding forever homes until I explained to them that if they were to give this family an animal, that animal would die soon, that this family was intent upon killing any and all animals they adopt. I lied to them when I added on that the goal of your family was to kill all animals that were not purebred, which is basically all the animals in shelters.

“Before I left, I did two things: I requested they spread the news to as many shelters in this state and bordering states as they could, and then I put up warding so should the family try magic to, for lack of a better term, rob the shelter, they will be powerless to do so.”

I found myself feeling more strongly in love with him than ever before. I had one question, though.

“How’d you put up the warding? Is that another power of yours that you forgot to mention?”

Elliot chuckled at that, though I don’t know why.

“Sweetie, everyone can do warding.”

Well, by that logic then…

“Then everyone can undo warding.”

Elliot looked at me for a while, just staring at me with mild shock that promptly became mixed with interest. At first I just stared back, taking the moment to appreciate his golden gaze. Eventually, though, I became uncomfortable and looked away.

“What?” I asked him.

“It astounds me that you don’t know anything about magic. And I know it’s practiced publicly here because I saw it happen all day. Magic is widely known and used here in this time, so logically I gotta imagine it’s used at your school too, and yet, somehow, you never noticed any of it?? Nobody ever told you about magic? Nobody you’re friends with ever said anything??”

“Ahhh, there’s your reason why, Elliot. I don’t have friends.”

He looked floored.

“That can't be right, Ricter!”

I studied his love-filled-albeit-astounded gaze and I just wanted to kiss the ever living shit out of him for it.

“Hon, _you_ love me, but the rest of the world? They don’t give two shits about my existence.”

“Ricter, come _on_ , you gotta have _someone_ you hang out with.”

“The group I hung out with these past three years at high school are hardly my friends. They took pity upon me because I was most often alone, so they let me tag along. None of them wanted me there, they just didn’t want to seem like shitty people.”

Elliot continued to stare at me for the longest moment until abruptly I found myself being kissed with a passion that just sucked the breath right out of me. I was kind of surprised I hadn’t passed out by the time he pulled away; it took me a minute to regain my normal breathing rhythm.

“Besides,” I said weakly, “who needs friends when someone’s willing to kiss me like that. _Wow_.”

Elliot pressed a second kiss to my lips and a third one to my forehead before returning back to our cuddling position, his head rested against mine.

“I think you’ll make some nice friends in college.”

Now uncomfortable with his strange insistence that I have friends, I changed the topic back to what we were originally talking about.

“So, what’s to stop my family from undoing the warding you put up?”

“The fact that the only person who can undo warding is the person who put it up.”

Oh! I felt so relieved.

Until my brain realized something far worse:

“Unless they force you to do it.” And then I realized further: “You didn’t do the ones out of state.”

“Ricter,” Elliot sighed as he felt my panic rise, “Honey, you’re going to give yourself another panic attack. They can’t find me, or you, so they’re not going to torture me. Okay? As for the shelters out of state, your family, believe it or not, are lazy, and they won’t expend efforts to look outside this town. Especially now that you’re missing, they’re going to be searching for _you_. Because how can they turn you evil if they don’t even know where you are?”

“So that’s why you have me stowed away here.”

“That’s one reason, yes, not the main reason. Unfortunately, when you get your powers, there won’t be any time to ward you from your family again. We’re going to be too busy trying to get the powers under control. They’ll eventually realize this if they don’t already know it. Worst case scenario to keep in mind here is that they fully know this, and are just lying in wait for you to blip up on whatever they're using to track you. By stowing you here, it gives us a little time to get ready for them."

My brain churned away with this information and came up with only one solution:

“I guess you gotta teach me now how to control them.”

Elliot smiled with pure affection and gently booped me on the nose.

“Exactly.”

I felt the strongest surge yet, pooling mostly in my stomach, of just…utter devotion to him, complete love that ran deeper than my mind could process. It was then that I, for the first time, found myself wanting to make love with him, and I guess he could see it in my eyes, or…oh, right, he could feel it (why couldn’t I remember that he can feel what I feel?), because he leaned in for a kiss and afterwards said:

“It’s far too soon for us to make love.”

Embarrassment overwhelmed me, and I hid my face by pulling my portion of the blanket over my head. Elliot found this highly amusing.

“Oh, honey,” he crooned, hugging me tighter against him, “There’s no need for that.”

“I don’t even know why I feel embarrassed.”

I felt him press a kiss to my head.

“Probably because you’ve never had sex before; I was the same way.”

I slowly peeked out from the blanket, surprised by him.

“You?”

The thought that Elliot had ever been a virgin (because apparently I was ignoring logic tonight) was just astounding the hell out of me; even more so, though, the fact that he had ever felt embarrassed…by _anything_.

“I love the way you see me as this superhuman, but that also sets you up for disappointment when I prove otherwise.”

My eyebrows came together to convey my confusion.

“Elliot, I could never be disappointed by you.”

He looked away at his hands as a soft chuckle escaped his lips; he said nothing in response, but he didn’t have to.

“Hey,” I gently urged him, using my hand against his face, to look back at me, and once again, in his eyes, I saw a man who had long since adjusted to being taken advantage of; words just left me. Instead, I kissed him, trying to convey just how much I appreciated him now, just how lovable he was, and just how much he deserved better than what future-asshole-me had given him.

What happened next was a surprise and at the same time, it wasn’t. It started out as me straddling his lap for easier access to his lips, to make kissing less of a strain, which then turned into our hands beginning to roam. I started unbuttoning his shirt as his hands slid underneath mine. The sensation had my breath catching for a moment, but neither of us noticed enough to stop. My shirt came off, followed by his, followed then by him maneuvering me onto my back on the couch.

Just as he finished unfastening my jeans, he froze, and for a second, a split second, I got hit hard with a sense of rejection. Then he looked into my eyes and I realized he hadn’t stopped because he didn’t want me. He’d stopped because he was being a mature adult despite his body’s raging hormones trying to convince him to be otherwise.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“C-can I just…” I needed to feel…

He nodded, and watched as I reached between us to see if he was hard. A jolt of excitement went through me upon feeling that he really was. I guess, in theory, that wasn’t really a good measure of his attraction to me, but it soothed me nonetheless. His expression now was one of great restraint, of immense struggle so I removed my hand, and placed my arms around his neck instead.

“So, you want me.”

He nodded.

“But it’s too soon.”

He nodded again.

“And I think I’m gonna go take a cold shower,” he stated. I let him go after he kissed me, and that’s when the guilt hit me.

“It’s okay, Rick,” he said on his way to the bathroom, “there are worse things to feel than strong sexual attraction.”

He was right about that, and I half-laughed/half-scoffed. Upon hearing the bathroom door close, I covered my face with my hands and groaned. Oh, I knew he was right; it was better to wait. Still. I needed the release, and there was only one other way to get it. I had a feeling Elliot was doing something similar during his “cold shower”, and part of me just felt the teeniest bit smug about it. I’m not entirely sure why, though…and that worried me, too.


	13. Chapter 13

When he emerged from the bathroom, I had just finished cleaning everything up. My timing could not have been worse; just as I walked out of the kitchen to head towards the couch, I found myself staring at a fully naked Elliot facing me, frozen with surprise. I tried real hard to keep my eyes on his face, and what started out as an _“Oh shit!”_ moment melted into one of hilarity. A bright smile crossed Elliot’s face as he relaxed his stance, spread his arms out, and said jovially:

“Go on, take a look!”

Oh, I so badly wanted to, but instead I just smiled at him, shook my head, and sat down on the couch, blocking my peripheral with my hand just for added measure.

“Really; that’s interesting.”

I detected a hint of hurt in his tone and immediately set out to explain.

“I want the first time I see you to be when we make love for the first time. I don’t know why I want it that way.”

“Tell me why,” Elliot sang.

I laughed, finding myself looking at him despite every part of logic screaming at me that he wasn’t dressed yet. He wasn’t, but I remained a good boy, keeping my eyes on his face.

“I’m surprised you know that song.”

He shrugged, turning away from me towards his dresser and bending slightly to open the middle drawer. I refused to look at his ass (which I'm sure is very attractive), instead opting to look back at the TV. It was then I noticed how late it was, followed suddenly by a big yawn. It was then I came to realize I had no idea where I was going to sleep.

“The couch pulls out into a bed,” Elliot explained, appearing on my right. I looked at him for a moment (noting he had on a white tee-shirt and gray boxer briefs), the both of us shared an intimate gaze, and then I stood to join him beside the couch.

“Guess the first thing to do is to move the table," I commented.

He nodded. Helping him, I discovered the table was light enough.

“Must be a hassle to have to move this every night and every morning.”

Elliot shrugged again.

“Honestly, I just consider it a part of my exercise.”

I laughed at that; that was good. Soon enough the bed was out, which was devoid of any sheets or anything. That solution to that problem was soon discovered when I watched as Elliot opened the bottom most drawer of his dresser and started pulling out the bed sheets…and the pillows.

“How the hell do you fit all that in there?” I asked as I caught the fitted sheet he tossed at me.

He grinned at me.

“Honey, magic exists, remember?”

Oh, right.

Working together, we made the bed, shut everything down, and got in. The bed was wholly uncomfortable.

Snuggling with Elliot, however, that was not.

“This is the first night I’ve ever shared a bed with someone,” I admitted to him, worrying that I would kick in my sleep.

“Mm, you sleep like the dead most nights.”

“That’s good. Do I snore?”

He resulting laugh was music to my soul.

“I’m not answering that.”

“Why not?!”

“Because! I don’t want to.”

“I snore, then.”

“Just go to sleep, darling.”

I found myself already doing that; he was so warm.

The following morning, I woke alone and felt disoriented, as one tends to be when sleeping in a new place, until I heard his voice, singing softly in the kitchen. As my nose registered the smell of coffee and I began to strongly desire a cup of it, I got out of the bed and shuffled my way, groggy, to the kitchen where my brain registered, all at once, that he was singing a beloved song of mine. I stopped in the entrance of the kitchen, watching as he cooked what smelled like pancakes, singing a song very dear to my heart. When he turned around for something, he did a double take, stopped singing, and then his cheeks went red with embarrassment.

“Rick! How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough to catch the song you were singing.”

He smiled self-consciously.

“I just…you know…I…”

I took three long strides to put me nearly chest-to-chest with him, grabbed his face, and kissed him with everything I could muster. He dropped whatever he was holding to grab me to him by the waist, the thud of the item hitting the floor only barely registering in my brain.

The kiss itself lasted less than a minute but left the both of us gasping for air. I watched as he turned around, grabbed a new spatula, and flipped the semi-burnt pancakes. Realizing I would kiss him like that again if he so much as looked at me, and he was just about to look at me, I hurriedly moved away from him over to the full coffee pot.

“Coffee?” I asked him.

“I don’t drink it; I made that for you.”

I closed my eyes as another wave of intense desire washed over me. All I fucking wanted was to kiss the ever living shit out of him…for starters.

I wondered if it’d still be this intense if we’d had sex last night. Realizing that was the wrong track of thinking to go on, I quickly switched to a more harmless topic:

“What’s on the agenda today?”

“Well, after breakfast, I thought we might go back to the waterfall to work on preparing you for your powers.”

“Sounds like a good plan.”

“Yeah, I thought so.”

I stayed over by the coffee pot despite the look in his eyes that said he wanted me closer to him. It was dangerous to be close to him right now, since he was cooking and all. As soon as the last pancake was done, however, and the heat was turned off, I was gonna pick right up where we left off. We ate cold pancakes for breakfast, but I didn’t care. My whole body was tingling pleasurably from my head to my toes, all from merely kissing the guy sitting next to me looking just a smidgen smug.

It was magical.

At the waterfall, I momentarily marveled all over again the difference in temperature, the difference in air quality (as in transitioning from humid to not), and the change in season. None of that compared to watching Elliot suddenly appear, though, and walk towards me. It felt like forever before he finally reached me, longer still for me to get my lips back on his. I was soaring long before his arms secured me in place against him.

“You sure are kissing me a lot today,” Elliot commented after the make-out session, “Not that I’m complaining. I love it, every second.”

“I can’t explain it. I just…I see you, I want you. It feels like I’ll die if I’m not near you.” I studied his gaze. “I’m insane, aren’t I?”

He smiled, shook his head, and pressed a soft kiss to my lips.

“Quite the contrary, Rick; you’re falling in love.”

That resulted in, surprise, more kissing. This time, however, he eased me back, his hands firmly on my chest, stopping me when I initially tried to get closer again.

“We have to focus on preparing you, Rick. There will be plenty of time for romance later.”

I groaned.

“There’s plenty of time for preparing later; romance now,” I countered.

Elliot broke out in a wide, euphoric smile.

“Rick.”

“Elliot.”

We stared at each other for a long time—I’d been so sure he’d break and kiss me, but he didn’t—before I finally gave in with a sigh.

“Oh, alright, fine, where do we start?”

“First of all, what you’re going to feel when your powers arrive is a weird sense of electricity in your body. It’ll feel much like your body is powering up, which is basically what it’s doing. It’ll hurt.”

My eyes went wide.

“It’s going to hurt?!”

“It’s going to feel like your entire body is being electrically shocked, as if you grabbed onto a live wire and didn’t let go, only…stronger.”

I groaned. I was horrible with pain.

“Great.”

“The thing to remember during this is to breathe. Under no circumstances can you scream.”

My head hurt already.

“And why can’t I scream?”

“Because that’ll give your family our precise location within seconds, as opposed to the hours it should take for them to find us.”

“Wh…why my scream?”

“I don’t know, but if they come before your powers have settled in place, they will kill me to turn you evil.”

I felt my heart seize right up at the thought of him being dead; my ability to breathe abandoned me.

Elliot without a word took one of my hands and held it over his chest. I felt his heart beating steadily beneath it, and found myself able to breathe again.

“You also will need to not focus on my possible death, because you will freeze, and I will die.”

I closed my eyes as my brain, specifically my anxiety, fucking _ran_ with the scenarios.

 _You need to believe in yourself,_ I heard Elliot say in my mind. _You can save me, and you will._

_But—_

_Repeat after me: I will save my beloved._

_I will save my beloved._

_Now keep repeating that._

_I will save my beloved, I will save my beloved, I will save my beloved, I will…_ I abruptly became aware of lips pressing against mine, and instinctively kissed back.

“I will save my beloved,” I said softly as I pulled away.

“You will save me,” Elliot agreed.

I felt the absolute truth of those words and marveled at that. I’d never believed in myself before; it was so liberating.

“The next thing to do is to teach you to retract into your happy place. When those powers arrive, you’re going to be in pain as I said, and you’re going to be scared. Upon reaching your happy place, you will be able to wait out the storm as your body adjusts to the powers within you.”

This is where he brought out a Taser.

“Uhm, Elliot,” I said nervously.

“This is nowhere near what you’re going to be feeling, and this won't kill you, but it’ll teach you how to retract.”

He zapped me.

“OW!” I rubbed my arm. “Dude! I wasn’t ready!”

“Ricter, your powers aren’t going to wait until you’re ready. Your family isn’t going to wait until you’re ready.” He zapped me again. “Think of your happy place.”

I closed my eyes, hissing and wincing every time he touched the Taser to me, and tried like hell to get myself to focus. Right when I would reach my happy place, he would send a particularly nasty jolt through me, causing me to lose it.

It took me an hour to get it, my body was sore as hell, my mind was weary of trying, but I finally got it, and I finally let myself get lost in it. My happy place was simple: a sunny day at the beach, all clear bright blue skies, white sand, clear blue water, it’s warm but not hot, and I’m walking the beach with my husband, Elliot, who cannot for the life of him take his eyes off of me, which is fair because—

“Ricter,” Elliot’s voice floated to me. “Rick, hon, open your eyes.”

It took me a moment, but eventually my eyelids fluttered opened. Elliot was looking pleased.

“I’ve had this on your leg for a good two minutes and you haven’t so much as whimpered.”

Despite wanting to be mad at him for the past hour of pain, I knocked the Taser out of his hand, tackled him to the ground, and kissed him fervently. As he responded and rolled me onto my back, I felt like all the blood in my body drained into one particular area, and all I desperately wanted now was him to give me a release.

He didn’t. He didn’t even give me a single stroke. He let the kissing drag on for a _long_ time, but at the end of it, he got off me and sat beside me. I let out a groan of frustration, covering my face with my hands.

“Would it have killed you to at least give me a hand job?” I asked him, moving my hands to my stomach and staring up at the sky above us.

“No, but it would’ve been too fast.”

“Tell that to my dick.”

“If it’s any consolation, mine’s having the same problem.”

I looked at him.

“Do you even want to have sex with me? Be honest.”

“Ricter, it’s taking everything I’ve got not to conjure a blanket here and now, and strip both of us of our clothing. I feel like the condom in my wallet is burning a fucking hole into it, that’s how badly I want to take it out and use it. I want to be inside of you, moving slowly and deeply, I want to listen to your breathing turn heavy turn into moaning, I want to slowly fuck you faster until you orgasm, I want to watch you come, I want to come inside of you. Believe me, there’s nothing I want more right now.”

The picture he painted was more than enough for my body to come without a single touch. I tried to stop it, but already it was too late.

“Oh, God damn it,” I muttered afterwards, glaring down at my crotch. Sometimes, I really hated being a male teenager.

Elliot chuckled as he got to his feet, and then helped me to mine.

“Come on, let’s go home. You did great today.”


	14. Chapter 14

So, that was basically how the last four days of my “normal” life went. On the night before my birthday, I found myself unable to sleep. It was nearing midnight and I was just one big bundle of nerves. Elliot was deep asleep and I didn’t want to wake him but I could not stand to be in this bed for another minute, especially if the powers came right at midnight, so, carefully, I slid out of his arms, and maneuvered my way out of the bed. I went over to the window adjacent to the dresser, pulled the armchair he’d bought yesterday over to it, taking care to do so _quietly_ , then sat down, and just watched the traffic go by on the street. It astounded me how alive this place was nearing midnight. You’d think it’d be dead. After a few minutes of this, Elliot spoke.

“You okay?”

I started so bad I nearly fell out of the chair and cast a panicked look towards the bed. Elliot was sitting up, looking at me.

“How long have you been awake??” I asked him.

“Since you left my arms.”

The guilt hit.

“I’m—”

“Don’t be, hon. I wasn’t really sleeping.” He studied my face. “You look about two seconds from having a panic attack.”

Well…he wasn’t wrong.

“Come here, babe.”

I got up and joined him on the bed. He was so warm, so solid; I snuggled in close and found my eyes drifting closed to appreciate this moment. My nerves began to calm down.

“What were you doing up?” He asked. His voice was soft, gentle, quiet.

“It’s nearing midnight, nearing my birthday, and I just couldn’t stand to be in bed another second.”

“Why’s that?”

“If they come at midnight, I didn’t want to wake you by writhing in pain in the bed.”

“I imagine you dropping to the floor would wake me too, dear. Plus I feel what you feel until I shut it off.”

Okay, so my plan hadn’t been entirely thought out.

“And besides,” he continued, “they’re not going to come until the _hour_ of your birth, which is at two in the afternoon.”

I groaned.

“You mean I’m going to be this crazed bundle of nerves until two in the freaking afternoon?!”

“‘Fraid so, sweetie.” Elliot stroked my hair as I hid my face against his neck. “You gotta remember to breathe, my love. You’re gonna be just fine.”

I knew this. He had taught me well. I knew, but the anxiety didn’t alleviate; it was just relentless waves of fear one right after another. Elliot began to sing. I stared at him with wide-eyed shock at first, and then the effects began to wash over me. Bit by bit my muscles relaxed, my heart rate slowed, my breathing calmed, and my brain fell silent. By the end of the song, I was nearly asleep with my head against his chest. He pressed a kiss to my head and told me once more that I would be just fine. I fell asleep warm, loved, and safe.

**_The arrival:_ **

I was not fine. I was anything but _fine_. Fucking fire burned from my head all the way to my toes while current after current of electricity flowed inside all my nerves. I wanted to scream. We were on our way to the meadow, in his car. We were headed to the meadow because there was a battle to be had and there was no way we were doing it with innocent bystanders around.

Have I mentioned wanting to scream? I wanted to belt it all out until I couldn't anymore. In an effort to protect my teeth, I was biting down _hard_ on a towel, but even that wasn’t enough. My hands were clenched into fists so tight the nails were digging in. We’d clipped them short so they wouldn’t cut me should I do this. Every muscle in my body felt like it was being ripped to shreds and burned. Every fucking thing was in utter agony. I was so sure my heart was going to give out; it was racing a mile a fucking minute. There was no way I was destined for these powers! There’d been a mistake! My body couldn’t withstand this! I was going to die.

Abruptly, for the first time in my life, I realized I didn’t want to die. I did not want to die. Whatever powers that be,  _please don't let me die._

We got to the meadow, it was deserted, and when Elliot let me go, I collapsed to the ground and curled up, biting on the towel so hard my jaw was hurting. Tears began to stream down my face, sobs trying to rip their way out of my body.

 _MAKE IT STOP!_ I screamed in my head.

At one point I managed to catch a glimpse of Elliot, and saw that he was sitting on the ground, legs pulled to his chest, arms wrapped around them, rocking back and forth with a look of absolute helpless misery on his face. Another glance between some seizures showed me he was crying.

The pain was only getting worse. How was it getting worse?!! Fear started to mix in as I realized I was losing the ability to breathe. This was it. I was dying. Clearly, I was dy—

The pain stopped. 

Like someone had flipped a switch, it stopped. It was all gone. Elliot felt the change, and looked up at me with wide, tear-filled eyes. It took me a solid minute to actually let the towel go, and then I started sobbing; just all-out, no-holding-back sobbing. Elliot rushed over to me to wrap me in his arms, urgently whispering that I was okay, that it was okay, that it was over.

After several long minutes of what felt like an emotion dump (everything I’d ever felt in my life seemed to have been released during my crying fit), I took an internal inventory of my body and discovered that I felt stronger than ever. Physically, I was basically powered up; I was ready to go (for the most part). It was mentally that was trying to catch up.

I let out a sigh, sniffled, and hugged Elliot to me.

“I’m sorry you had to go witness that,” I told him.

He buried his face against my neck.

 _I’m glad that I did,_ he thought.

I pulled back and took his face in my hands. I knew we didn’t have much time and in case one of us should die, I wanted to tell him one more time.

“I love you.”

A wave of pain crossed his entire expression, so potent that I actually felt it myself. I was so sure he was about to start crying but he kept himself in check, took a shaky breath, and murmured:

“I love you.”

I kissed him hard and long, and then I stood up. It was time to test.

I looked down at my hands, realizing one very important problem: how the _hell_ did this work?

“Uhm, Elliot…”

He chuckled and approached me from behind, resting his hands on my upper arms. With a gentle squeeze of his hands, he said:

“Look within.”

Have I mentioned yet how much I love him? I just. I really need to mention that. I fucking _love him_.

Anyways, I closed my eyes and did as he advised. I can’t really describe what it was like. I’m kind of imagining that you’re imagining that it’s like a video game of sorts. You pick and choose your power, they're clearly labeled. That isn’t it at all. There were different frequencies of energy going on within me. I couldn’t tell the difference between them, so I randomly chose one.

It ended up being the lava spheres.

In both my hands, two perfectly-round spheres of straight up _lava_ formed in my hands. I jumped back with surprise, dropping them (my brain had said to drop them, as they were going to burn me; they didn't). They hissed as they touched the ground, and started a brief fire on the grass they touched, which went out when Elliot dumped water on them. I stared at the already-hardened black blobs with a mix of utter horror and total fascination.

“Do you realize how lucky we are that this state isn’t in a dry spell?” I commented.

“I was just thinking the same thing.”

God…this power was incredibly dangerous. With one single lava sphere, I could potentially start a wild fire that killed hundreds, thousands, if not more.

Okay…what else did I have? When I opened my eyes, and looked at my hands, I was disappointed to see them empty. Everything else was the same. I turned to Elliot to ask what I was doing wrong and was shocked to find him standing with one arm mid-air, like he was about to scratch an itch on his scalp or something. I watched him for a few seconds, realized he wasn’t blinking. He also wasn’t breathing. I began to panic. Had I just frozen him somehow?!

“Elliot??”

Oh, crap. Oh, crap, oh, crap, oh crap, this was not good! How did I go about unfreezing him?! Panic built up at an alarming speed, stealing my breath. I sat down to put my head between my knees to just breathe if nothing else, all the while my brain was going on and on about what an idiot I was for freezing the love of my life, and worrying about if this affected his internal organs. Would freezing him kill him?!

“Babe, what’s wrong?” Elliot’s voice asked suddenly.

“Elliot!” I screeched, jumping to my feet and hugging him. “Oh my god, I thought I’d killed you!”

He let out a confused laugh.

“Sweetheart, what are you talking about?”

I pulled away from him.

“I froze you. I have the ability to freeze people. And then I got to worrying about your internal organs and I just…”

Understanding dawned on him.

“Actually, you have the ability to freeze _time_. Point in fact, what time does your watch say?”

I looked at it.

“Three-oh-eight.”

Elliot showed me his watch, a digital one.

Three-oh-six.

I blinked.

“Okay, but if I froze you, your watch would be behind, too, so how do you know it’s _time_ I can freeze and not people?”

He took my face in his hands.

“Which one of us is from the future? Which one of is us married to the other in the future? Hm? Which one actually saw you use all of your powers at one point or another?”

“Alright, alright, I get it,” I grumbled. “You sure you’re fine, though? Everything within you was frozen, so…”

“I’m okay, sweetheart. What else you got?”

I discovered next my telekinetic powers. I found that to be rather cool, until I lost control of a limb and it very _nearly_ missed my beloved, who gave me a _that was too close_ look as he recovered.

There was only one other energy I hadn’t checked out. Once more, everything seemed the same, and once more, Elliot proved otherwise.

He looked to his right where I’d been standing, and then he looked confused.

“Rick, where’d you go?” He started to turn in a circle, searching the meadow.

I laughed.

“Very funny, Elliot.”

He whirled back towards my voice, but wasn’t looking directly at me. He was looking at the space just to the left of my left shoulder. Had he gone blind? HAD I BLINDED HIM?!

“I’m not making a joke, Ricter, where are you?”

"Elliot, are you blind??"

"No, I can see just fine, my darling. I just can't see you."

I was invisible?

Holy shit, I was invisible!

“Oh, this is so cool!”

I ran around and suffered a giggling fit at the exasperated look on Elliot’s face as he gave up trying to pinpoint where I was. Then I kissed him. The look of pure shock on his face thrilled me for some reason; I kissed him again.

When I pulled away, I guess I was visible again because he met my gaze and smiled.

“That’s your favorite in the future, too. You love to drive me absolutely crazy with it. I can’t remember how many times I’d be sitting somewhere doing whatever, and in the next minute feel you unfastening my pants to have your way with me. I can never stop you because usually there are other people around and it’ll bring unwanted attention to that which I don’t want attention for.”

My glee faded.

“Wait, that sounds more like sexual assault.”

“No! Of course not…I mean…uh.” His eyebrows came together, conveying his confusion.

I swallowed hard.

“I completely abused you and called it love. I did it so well you didn’t even realize it was happening.” I backed away from him. “How the fuck do you even love me? How _can_ you?”

“Rick, wait a minute, slow down, future you is not _you_.”

“You keep saying that!”

“Because it’s true! You now have the choice to avoid becoming that man. You're already doing it, avoiding that path!”

“How the fuck can you possibly stomach looking at me when I—”

He grabbed me.

“Ricter, listen to me! _YOU_ are not _HIM_. I know that’s confusing, but you are two different people; two different timelines. Yes, I loved him, yes it is shocking realizing I willingly stayed with a man who doesn’t take care of me in the least bit, and yes, I am horrified at him now. But he is not _you_. You’ve taken care of me from the get-go, and I love you far more than I ever loved him. You are not him, sweetheart. You’re better than him. You’re who you were meant to be all along. Do you understand?”

I let out a hysterical laugh.

“No! I don’t! I don’t understand. I don’t understand any of this!”

Elliot let out a laugh of his own and pulled me into his arms.

“Oh, I can’t explain it any better.” He hid his face in my hair.

I felt like the world was at a standstill and it was me and him that were spinning nearly out of control. God, I was so overwhelmed; but even then, I couldn’t deny the absolute love radiating off the man holding me, and I knew it was that that I should focus on. In this moment now, I don't abuse him, I don’t take him for granted, I don’t take advantage of him. In this moment now, I love him with everything I’ve got.

That was more than enough.

“FOUND ‘EM!” A voice ripped through the moment, shattering it like glass. I opened my eyes and turned around to see that worst had yet to come. My shields went up.


	15. Chapter 15

The person to whom the voice belonged breached the edge of the woods first. As I stood watching, frozen in fear, anger, and hatred, I felt a hand take mine. I jumped as if electrocuted, realized there _had_ been a shock from the contact, looked at my hand that Elliot was now holding, then looked up at the love of my life.

“Did you feel that?” I asked him.

He nodded but said nothing. I guess words weren’t really needed at the moment. I would’ve kissed him just because, but now was _so not_ the time. I returned my attention to Kai, who had just about reached us. Behind him, his parents were approaching. I waited a very anxious few minutes after their arrival to see if there was, oh, I don’t know, a whole _army_ with them, but it appeared to be just those three. I felt a sense of relief. We could handle three…right?

Except…Elliot didn’t really have useful active powers…other than that water-conjuring ability. With this realization, all the weight returned with vigor. I was shocked that my legs didn’t give out.

The priority immediately became keeping Elliot safe, and that’s when it hit me. Their goal would be to kill him. Because there was one thing I loved more than animals on this planet, and he was standing right beside me, utterly defenseless.

Well…mostly defenseless.

“Do we waste time with pleasantries or do we get to it?” I asked. I wished like hell to pull Elliot behind me, but something deep within me told me to keep him by my side; more importantly, to keep our hands linked. I couldn’t explain the feeling, but at this point, I wasn’t about to start doubting my instincts. They could save his life.

“Aren’t you just _dying_ to know why?” Kai asked. “Why we did to you all that we did?”

“Well, mostly _you_ did.”

“Who do you think told me to do it?”

Right, right.

“Frankly, I don’t care why you did it,” I told him earnestly. Their faces expressed shock, and then disappointment. Apparently, they wanted to monologue. I just wanted to get this stupid fight over with so Elliot and I could go home and move on. I wasn’t a fighter. I didn’t like conflict.

“Actually, I want to know,” Elliot piped up.

I looked at him. “You do realize that delays the fight, right?”

“Honey, it won’t kill you to wait a few minutes to learn the most important part of this whole experience. Now,” he looked at our opponents, “spill.”

His parents spoke, taking turns.

_It began with Trace, our family seer. Our family had never had someone who would see the future before, and even then we were sure such a thing was merely a myth. How pleased we were to find out we were wrong. Not only that, but we found out that Trace is far more powerful than we ever could’ve imagined. He couldn’t see just a little into the future, he could see YEARS into the future. He was the son of my sister (the father’s) and I guess one day he had a vision of a child that will allow evil to take over the world once and for all. Evil has been waiting for an eternity for this chance, never getting it…until now. That child is your future baby girl, Ricter._

Shock slammed into me so hard I nearly dropped Elliot’s hand. Would’ve, if Elliot hadn’t squeezed right then to remind me to keep my grip.

_That’s right, Ricter, you will have a daughter in the future. She’s very powerful, this girl of yours. You see, kiddo, your daughter determines the balance of the universe, whether it turns evil or stays in the good. Now, Trace at this point saw the future split. He saw what becomes of the world upon the girl being a force for good, and then he saw what becomes of the world should she be evil. We put our minds to work. We wanted her to be evil, obviously, and it would seem her upbringing is what determines which path she takes, which means her father, she comes from your seed, after all, is the main determining factor. Trace gave us the last name of your family and off to the archives we went, to find your family tree. It took quite a bit of researching, it did, and we found out we didn’t have much time. It was fortunate we found out all of this just shortly before your birth._

Fear began to grip my lungs. What had they done??

“Easy, love,” Elliot murmured.

I looked at him. “You know all of this.”

“You need to hear it.” His eyes held mine and in them, strangely enough, I found myself calming down.

“Okay.”

_So, we needed a way to turn you evil. The thing that most permanently and always changes good to evil is murder. We needed a plan, something that pisses you off so much that you resort to murdering someone in a rage. Trace had seen this, but not how it came to be, which we always thought weird, but no matter. Around the time of your birth, we conjured up a son of our own since we were physically unable to have children._

At this, Kai looked at his parents with shock.

“I’m not born?”

His parents didn’t even look the least bit remorseful, at which point I realized their son was merely just a pawn in their game, just a strategy to get me evil, and that made sense, since in Elliot’s future, I had killed Kai.

Might still kill him if I couldn’t find a way to protect Elliot.

Ignoring their son, the parents continued.

_It is true, Kai is just a tool, because, see, if we get Ricter onto our side of things, onto the evil side of things, there’s no limits to what we can do. The main thing we hold an interest in, until he’s old enough to make that child of his, is his ability to freeze time. Because, do you realize how much money we can steal from banks with everything frozen but us? It’s an amazing power to have. So, thus born the plan to have Kai abuse Ricter all his life, and then kill something very near and dear to him._

At this point in time, his parents looked at Elliot with disdain.

“What we didn’t account for was you. Trace never told us of you. Who the fuck are you?”

Elliot smiled. “I’m the one with a similar path of yours. In that I, too, know of the future. Well, a future. There are many futures, after all. Everything that happens are mere moments in time, moments that can be altered, prevented, provided one is careful. I’m someone meant to change this particular timeline.”

“And you’re not gonna do it alone,” a new voice spoke from the edge of the trees off to our (Elliot and me) right. Both of us looked right, while Kai and his parents looked to their left. A male, with a female walking beside him holding his hand as Elliot and I were still doing, entered the meadow followed by two women, and three men. None of these people I recognized, but they were looking at me with the broadest smiles on their faces as if they knew who I was. Upon looking at Elliot, I saw that he recognized them, too, and sure enough when they reached us, the first thing they did, all seven of them, was take turns hugging Elliot. He did not let go of my hand during this. I still didn’t know why it was imperative to hold hands.

“Elliot?” I inquired about the newcomers.

He met my gaze.

“Ricter,” he gestured to the male and female holding hands, the ones staring at me with a mix of sadness and utter love in their gazes, “I’d like you first to meet your parents.”

Did he just say parents?!

Before either of them, or I could say something, Kai’s parents let out in unison:

“NO!”

Those supposedly parents, gazes hardening, turned to them.

“That’s right, we’re back you sacks of shit,” the one supposedly my father spoke.

“And you’re going to pay for what you did,” the one supposedly my mother spoke after.

“What the fuck is going on?!” I said far louder than I had intended. Everyone looked back at me, and I hated the attention. Like a child, I sort of shrunk against Elliot, eyes downcast at my shoes. Elliot, for some reason amused by this, chuckled softly and pressed a kiss to the side of my head.

Before anyone could answer me, Kai raised his hands to attack, I assumed, but I wasn’t ready to fight when I needed to know who these newcomers were.

“I don’t think so,” I spoke. With my free hand, I gestured at the trio. “Chill out for a bit, we’ll get back to you.” They froze while my supposed blood family laughed. My parents turned to me. My father spoke first.

“My name is Jenson Lockwood, this,” he gestured to the woman by his side, “is my wife Esma Lockwood.”

One of the males standing nearby with a woman beside him spoke up next, the one with his hair up in a manbun.

“I’m your uncle-in-law Darren Hahnfeld. This is your aunt Jenille.” The blonde beside him smiled warmly and waved.

Next to speak was the other male with a female beside him. This male had buzz cut short hair, the woman beside him with auburn hair pulled up into a loose ponytail.

“I’m Gregg Tomlinson, your uncle-in-law, and this is my wife Hannah, your Aunt.”

The last to speak was the lone male, who had short light brown hair with spiked bangs.

“I’m your uncle Brand Lockwood.”

My mother spoke next.

“Hannah and Jenille are my sisters, Brand is your father’s brother. It’s really wonderful to see you again, sweetheart.”

Emotions overcame me all at once. Blinded by tears, running purely on instinct, I let go of Elliot’s hands and ran into the arms of my parents. Their siblings wrapped us in hugs too and the tears I tried desperately to hold back ran down my cheeks as I closed my eyes to savor this.

My family. I wasn’t alone anymore.

When the hug was over, I turned to Elliot.

“You did this.”

He nodded, extending his hand towards me. I went back over to him, wiping my tears off my cheeks as I went.

“While there was a good chance you could defeat your kidnappers all on your own, I realized the only choice we had to resolve this was to kill them, and between you and me, you hold the only real power to pull that off. However, if you kill someone, even someone as evil as them, you turn evil. I was going to wait to take you to your blood family after the battle, but we need the help. They won’t turn if they kill evil. Since I knew of your bloodline anyway, it was simple matter of looking them up. I called your parents who had absolutely no memory of you whatsoever; the Johensens erased the memories of your blood relatives, they also installed a concealing spell on you in your left ankle.” My birth mark? “I asked them if I could come over, I had some important news to share with them.”

“So _that’s_ where you went.”

He nodded. “When I got there, I restored their memories. Restoring theirs created a ripple effect within their families and once the initial reactions were done and out of the way, we talked. I told them about you, I told them about me, about us together, everything. When I left, the both of them were on the phone with their siblings. And here we are.”

I looked at him for a long time, marveling that this miracle was in my life right now, and before I could think of something to say, a burst of electricity exploded about a foot in front of him, making the both of us jump back with alarm.


	16. Chapter 16

I knew Kai had sent that shot because he was the only one whose arm was lowering back down to his side. He was also staring at us with a look of absolute incredulity, but then again so was everyone else.

I looked at Elliot.

“Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine,” he said as he looked at me with wide eyes, then he looked at Kai. “Did you just send a lightning bolt my way?”

“Duh. I saw an opening with your moron distracted, which he was stupid to let happen, and took it. Which one of you is making the force field?”

Elliot and I looked at each other and knew. It wasn’t one of us on our own; it was both of us together. In a way, our love was the one shielding us, and now I knew why it was imperative we not stop holding hands.

“Cool!” I exclaimed. Elliot laughed.

“Our turn,” my father said.

I watched as my family took each other’s hands, glared at the Johensen clan and after a second of nothing happening, a bright white light shot out from them and engulfed my kidnappers. The light kept getting brighter, and at its brightest I could swear I heard a low whine mixed in with a crackling sort of sound. Just as I was about to look away, the brightness began to dim, and soon enough it faded away entirely. What was left was nothing. The Johensens were just…gone. I let go of Elliot’s hand and walked over to where they’d been standing. There wasn’t even a scorch mark.

“Elliot, come here! Look at this!”

He came over willingly, looked where I pointed, and shrugged, looking perplexed.

“Cool!” He exclaimed then, mimicking me from earlier.

I looked at him, not wanting to laugh but laughing anyway, and rolled my eyes.

“Dork,” I muttered.

“Come here, jerk.” He grabbed me into a fierce hug. I didn’t fight it one bit. It was starting to sink in that the worst was over, the threat was gone, and Elliot was alive. I realized then, with horror, that if the future had been changed…

I pulled back with wide eyes. Would he disappear?!

He knew exactly what I was worried about, took my face in his hands, and kissed me.

“I’m here to stay,” he murmured afterwards. “I’m all yours.”

Joy burst forth from my heart and drowned me. I hardly cared, more concerned with kissing him now. He didn’t fight me on it one bit. My family let us at it.

Once Elliot and I managed to pry apart from each other, my mom asked me if I wanted to go home with them. I said yes, but only if Elliot could come with, too. They looked perplexed at this, and said of course he could come. Why wouldn’t he be allowed to?

“Actually, I need to go do something.”

I looked at him with fear striking my heart.

“Honey, I’m not going to disappear.”

“How do we know that, though?! Maybe it takes a while for time to fix itself.”

“Sweetheart. When I came to this time, I took over the body of me in this now. This is what I looked like. I’m coming back, I swear it.”

I squinted my eyes at him.

“You’d better come back, or I’ll hunt your ass down and make you wish you’d never left in the first place.”

He grinned. “Deal. Now behave.” He stole a kiss before heading away from us towards the path that led out of the woods surrounding the meadow. When he was gone, ignoring how my heart already missed him all to hell, I followed my family out the same way he’d gone. I wondered why I couldn’t have just walked out with him, but oh well; I used the time to learn more about the family I’d been hidden from all my life. As you can imagine, we had a ton to talk about.

At the house, which had three floors and a basement (they literally all lived in the same house??); there were two bathrooms, a half bathroom in the basement, and _eight_ bedrooms, all equipped with walk in closets. The place was huge, and apparently a power base. I was offered to live here with Elliot if I so desired, but in my heart I knew he’d want to avoid living here. Something told me this is where we lived in the evil future. I didn’t tell them that, of course, I just smiled and thanked them. Dinner was decided to be Chinese takeout food, and while Brand was ordering that, my parents took me to the living room, sat me down, and told me to let them see my ankle with the mark on it. I took my shoes off, my socks off, and put my feet up on the table. The mark was clearly seen on the side, and seeing the thing that prevented them from being able to find me triggered the both of them. They had to leave the room and Hannah with her husband Gregg were the ones to deal with the mark. I felt the need to apologize to them for upsetting my parents; they looked at me with deep sympathy and assured me it wasn’t my fault.

Once the mark was gone, I found my parents in the kitchen, went right over to them, and hugged them. They immediately held me close, and it felt so wonderful to be surrounded by love for the first time in my life.

“Can I get me some of that?” Elliot asked.

We mentioned him over, and seconds later were joined by my aunts and uncles. I don’t know how long we stood there, but gradually the family began to move away from the group hug until the only two left were me and Elliot, who I had taken a moment to kiss again. I’d missed him so much.

I was also glad he hadn’t been gone as long as I thought he would’ve.

“Get everything done?” I asked him.

He nodded. “Which brings me to something I wanted to ask you about.”

“Oh?”

He got down on one knee before me. I inhaled sharply as I saw exactly what he was doing. He confirmed it, bringing out a ring.

Oh god. This was happening?

This was happening.

“Now, I realize to some this will seem insane since we haven’t gone out on a date yet, but I already know we’re meant to be. We had the marriage working when you were evil so I believe it’ll be even better now that you’re not. I don’t want to waste any time so, will you—?”

“Yes!” I burst out.

“—marry me?” He finished despite my interruption. He stood up, looking amused. “Rick, it’s rude to interrupt.”

“Fine, I change my answer.”

“Bullshit.” He slid the ring onto my willing hand, and kissed it. “You’re mine.”

“Damn straight.” I hugged him.

My family applauded and so began the wedding plans while we waited for the food.

 

The wedding:

_Four weeks later_

 

God, I was nervous. Made worse by the fact that I’d left my damn vows at home and I couldn’t recall any of them. My dad was in the room with me trying to calm me down.

“It’s going to be okay, kiddo, really. You think I was Mr. Perfect marrying your mom? I was a wretched mess and she still says it was the best day of her life. It’s okay.”

“It’s just…he’s gonna…be up there…all…perfect…and I just…wanted…to be…perfect…for…him…” _Please breathe_ , I begged my lungs refusing to work.

“Rick, you already _are_ , can’t you see? He loves you, everything about you, exactly as it is! You’re putting too much pressure on yourself.”

“But…he’s prepared!” Hell, he’s already been through this. This had to be a piece of cake for him. I’ve never done this before!

“Hey,” my father grabbed my shoulders and held my gaze, “the man standing out there right now waiting for you? Loves you more than anything, whether or not you perfectly remember the vows you wanted to say. You know what he’s gonna see when you walk out there to join him? He’s going to see you bathed in sunlight and think you an angel. He’s going to want to cry because you’re so beautiful. That man’s heart belongs only to you, and nothing will change that. So _breathe,_ kid. This is not some stranger you’re marrying. This is the love of your life. This is a celebration. Your heart knows exactly what it wants to say, listen to it. It will guide you perfectly through this.”

A knock sounded on the door.

“Everything okay in here?” Brand asked. “Elliot’s looking mighty concerned and about two seconds from bolting in here to see what’s going on. Darien has only _barely_ got him distracted and even then, I think Elliot’s really just humoring him. Kiddo, whatever you’re doing in there, your husband-to-be is getting worried sick.”

I straightened as new resolve washed over me. Resolve to put my beloved’s mind to rest. Of course I got this. There was nothing to be s cared of, I was surrounded by love, celebrating that with a man I was going to be so happy with. I was lucky, really, to have him as young as I am. Most people didn’t get this chance until much later in life. Vows or no vows, I was going to do this. I walked on out of that room with my head held high, determined to march right up to Elliot and get this done.

I stopped the second I saw him waiting for me up at the altar. My heart felt like it’d stopped dead and then kick started into a very high gear. All at once, I just wanted to cry. Elliot was so beautiful. The sun shining down on his hair like, I swear to god, a halo. The look of both deep concern and just straight up full love on his face as he took a step towards me; Darien tried to hold him back but Elliot was having none of it. I realized then that my feet had started up again, and within a few seconds I was right in front of everything my heart held dear.

“Are you okay?” Elliot asked worriedly.

“I am now,” I assured him.

He could see this, could feel it, smiled and put a hand against my cheek.

“I forgot my vows, too,” he told me.

That finished out the calming process for me as I saw that no matter how perfect I saw him as, he was really just as human as I was, and that was exactly what I needed. I took his hand and stepped up to the priest. Let’s do this.

His vows:

_Ricter, it feels like I’ve been with you for an eternity when in fact it’s really only been twenty or so years if you count the first time I was married to you in the timeline I come from, and in this timeline it’s only been a few weeks. It blows my mind that it’s only been a few weeks when I know I’ve loved you for forever. I’m excited to start this new life with you, I’m lucky as hell to have found you again, and I can’t wait to show you all that makes life worth living._

My vows:

 _Elliot, it still warps my mind that there was another me, an evil me, that you were married to, that you got to know, that, save for him being evil and I myself not, was exactly me as I am now. I mean to say it warps my mind that you came into my life knowing exactly everything I’ve ever wanted someone special to know about me, all without me actually having told you. I never knew love before this, and I was scared I never would. You changed my life, you saved my life, you gave me everything I’ve ever wanted and I’m…God, I suck at this._ He had laughed then   murmured at me that I was doing wonderfully. _I just. I can’t tell you how much it means to feel so utterly comfortable with you. This may be fast in this timeline, but I don’t care. This is meant to be, and I am crazy blessed to have you._

After that came the I do portion, which was hell for me because I had to wait for the priest to finish the question before answering, and wait again before Elliot answered. Finally the priest said the magic words:

“I pronounce you husband and husband; you may kiss.”

I put everything I had into kissing Elliot, who spared nothing doing the same with me. I could not _wait_ until tonight.

“You’re gonna have to,” Elliot murmured. “I’m not taking your virginity in a closet.”

I pouted at him. “Why do you have to be such a romantic?”

“Because the love of my life deserves that. Now come on, it’s time for the real fun to start.”

Onto the reception we went.

Patiently, I waited and waited, through the first dance together, through dancing with family, through more dancing together, through toasts and speeches and pictures. I waited through the meal that was actually delicious, through the cutting of the cake, the eating of it, and through seeing the guests out when the ceremony came to a close. It was nearly midnight when the two of us were finally alone, but neither of us was tired and as promised, he took me home.

To my surprise, our bedroom was already lit with fake candles. The bed was dusted with rose petals. Soft, soothing music, music I absolutely loved in fact, was playing quietly on a stereo on his dresser. On his nightstand, glaringly out of place and yet making perfect sense, were condoms and lube. All of a sudden, I grew extremely nervous. After all, I’d never done anything like this.

“Just follow my lead,” Elliot murmured in my ear, starting with scooping me up into his arms, laying a soft kiss on my lips, and carrying me over to the bed where he set me down and got on top. First all he did was kiss me for a while, then started the touches, then came off the clothes, and then, as suggested, I followed his lead. Touches that made us hard, breathing that started coming out faster, sensations I’d never felt before so strong and getting stronger, pain when he first entered, pain that blossomed into something beautiful, something powerful, something _deep_ when it finally faded. Watching him as he drew close, feeling my own body do the same. My first orgasm with him, followed by a kiss and then his own orgasm within me; he moaned my name as it happened, sending a jolt of electricity right into my belly and into my heart all at once. There was absolutely no doubt that this is what true love felt like.

Everything seemed so clear, afterwards, so pristine, I felt like there was absolutely nothing that could ever be bad. Nothing amounted to the moment I looked at him afterwards, though, and saw, felt, exactly the reason why he’d waited. I can’t put it into words, but it was _powerful_. He smiled down at me seeing that I now understood, still catching his breath.

“See?” He murmured.

Speechless, and feeling the oddest urge to cry, I pulled his face back down to mine and I kissed him. I was absolutely ready for a life spent with him filled with moments just like this, even if that included getting through bad moments, as for sure there would be some, since no marriage is perfect.

Bring it on, I say. Nothing would stop us now.

**_The End_ **


End file.
